CBS Sports Profiles UNO Basketball Coach Mark Slessinger as Coach and Foster Parent
Leading national sports media hub CBS Sports headlined National Foster Care month today with a profile of Mark Slessinger highlighting his roles as a coach and a foster parent.
Slessinger coaches basketball for the UNO Privateers and his wife, Toni, works in UNO Admissions. Since arriving at the University of New Orleans, the couple has become foster parents. In recent months, two children have become special members of the UNO Family.
On Monday, a heart-stirring story in The Advocate revealed that one of the children will soon be returned to her birth parents. A similar story followed on SportsNOLA.com
The same day the Slessingers received a surprise new addition to their household.
A baby was dropped off at a local fire or police department station under Louisiana's Safe Haven law, which allows parents to give up their children safely and anonymously without legal repercussions. The Slessingers welcomed the little girl with open arms and in a poignant retelling, CBS Sports.com today reported the details.
The CBS Sports.com profile "Mark Slessinger a great coach, but his best work is as a foster parent" by Gregg Doyel hones in on Coach Slessinger's character, capturing his various roles on campus, as well as on the courts.
The story captures Slessinger's exuberance, dedication and fun-loving personality with cameo photos of the basketball coach second-line shuffling in the arena, wearing a crawfish costume to the University's Second Annual Crawfish Mambo Kick-Off and Music Festival and giving a Privateer cheer from the sidelines.
