Gwinnett Daily Post

Former athletes will have a chance this weekend to get together and discuss the transition between their old and new lives at a roundtable Saturday.

Joccupation.com, Prime Restaurant and S.C.O.R.E. are teaming up for the roundtable discussion, called "The Transition," at 3 p.m. Saturday at Prime Restaurant at Lenox Mall in Atlanta.

Parkview grad Ainsley Battles, the president and founder of Joccupation.com, said the purpose of the event is to provide athletes with the advice and guidance they need to move from the athletic fields to the next phase of their lives.

"Our purpose is to serve the whole athlete," Battles said. "Finance is the most know, but we want to go beyond that to family and the home life. ... It's a huge adjustment that has to be made."

Aside from Battles, other former athletes who will be participating in the discussion inlcude Atlanta NFLPA chapter president Sol Brannen, fellow Parkview grads Jon Muyres, Ryan Ledden and Jim May, OT Magazine publisher Ryan McNeil, former Atlanta Falcon Chris Calloway, and model/teacher Noah Burroughs.

Battles, who played football at Parkview and Vanderbilt before a pro career with the Steelers and Jaguars, said part of the goal is to make sure former athletes realize their sport isn't their whole life.

"Football is one of the things you did," he said. "It's not who you are."

No matter what the sport, Battles said the transition is ubiquitous. Whether it's swimming, tennis, golf, soccer or other sports, every athlete must go through the process.

"The guest list is slanted more toward football," he said, "but we plan on doing more events to bring more variety of sports to the same topic and have the same talk about transition."

For people who can't attend, "Thursday Night Tailgate" will broadcast its show live from the event at www.blogtalkradio.com and Joccupation.com will stream the event live from the Joccupation websites starting at 3:30 p.m. Joccupation will also provide a chat room for online participation.

For more information about Joccupation or to register for the event, visit www.joccupation.com or email joccupation@gmail.com.