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By: Dave Miceli, CMAA – Burr and Burton Academy, Manchester Center, Vermont Knowing who you are makes it easy to know what to do when you are faced with a new situation. You simply do the things that are in line with your core values. A week before this spring sports season was to begin, we received word that schools would be temporarily closed to in-person education. As the situation progressed, that order was extended through the rest of the school year. On April 30th, six weeks since the original start date, the sports season was officially canceled. This unprecedented situation created some unique opportunities to continue using education-based athletics as a vehicle to help young people in their journey to become their best possible selves. For the coaches at Burr and Burton, the tools for connecting with their athletes had changed overnight but they found success by sticking with our values.
We Continued to Work Out Athletes want to compete. Coaches developed workout programs that challenged athletes to stay in shape and created opportunities for growth. Our boy's lacrosse program divided their athletes into groups of four and assigned a person to captain each squad. The season was divided into three rounds to keep athletes motivated. During the first round 23 of the 30 athletes who signed up had completed 100% of the workouts. A couple of athletes decided to drop out along the way but of those who remained, one athlete missed one workout in Round Two and in the final weeks we had all 28 of the remaining athletes complete 100% of the daily workouts. Beyond the physical benefits, the athletes experienced teamwork and accountability. With seven squads there were multiple leadership opportunities available to the athletes beyond the normal 2-3 captains that would have existed in a regular season. We Continued to Connect Athletes want to connect. Athletics build our communities, and this season was no different. The challenges of connecting remotely were met head on by many of our teams. We instituted new traditions like the Ultimate Lunch and Talking Track - both were weekly meetings that gathered teammates for low key connection. Though their sports season had concluded a couple of months ago, even our Girls Hockey team got in on the remote connection action with a trivia night. Their coach said it felt, "just like a bus ride" as the girls played and talked and recharged. We also had TikTok contests and a host of other team bonding experiences. One of the teams that had the strongest connections was our unified basketball team. Athletes and partners met weekly. In addition to workout programs, they discussed nutrition and productive ways to use the increased time at home. They checked in with each other, they told stories and they laughed together. We Continued to Compete Our girl's lacrosse team took their workout competition directly to their opponents. They challenged teams across the state to match their workouts. Athletes self-reported workouts on a master spreadsheet. Each team gained points for workouts completed. At the end of the season a winner was announced, and prizes were distributed. I am happy to report that Burr and Burton Academy took first place among the nine teams that competed. Taking competition one step further, on what would have been game day with our biggest rival, our coach and the Mt. Anthony coach took to Instagram for a skills competition. We Continued to Grow Athletes want to grow and evolve. Our coaches used the extra time to break down game film from previous seasons. They watched college and professional games together remotely. There were chalk talk sessions, and video feedback on pitching and hitting. We had skill challenges where athletes sent in video feats of skill and challenged their teammates to do the same. Even the headmaster got into the act with a tennis anywhere video using surfaces throughout our campus. One area of growth that our coaches were able to address was the mental game. We all know that this is a vital part of athletic success yet so often it takes a back seat to physical development. This season we hit it hard. Athletes learned the value of meditation, positive self-talk, goal setting, daily habits, etc. Coaches taught these skills or brought in guest speakers to instruct. We Continued to Serve Athletes want to be of service to others. At this point many of our athletic programs traditionally participate in service projects as a team. This season these projects were completed closer to home. Sprinkled throughout the competitions were points for helping around the house, cooking, yardwork, doing things for their households or safely for neighbors and the larger community. One of the teams even had a cleanest room competition. Not everything we tried succeeded and many athletes chose not to engage. One of the better ideas that never gained traction was an effort to make masks to distribute to those who did not have access to PPE. It turns out very few households have sewing machines. I struggle with accounting for the athletes who chose not to engage. Did they not need the connection? Were they so lost that they could not even motivate to engage? In a regular season, these are the students you would see in the hallway or cafeteria and stop for a few seconds of conversation to take their "temperature." I unfortunately never found a virtual replacement for that. Still, I am inspired by the efforts that my coaches made to continue teaching the valuable lessons offered through education-based athletics. We Continued to Lead Building better people and leading by example are core values of our program, so we adapted to our circumstances and kept our core values in place. Coaches play a pivotal role in the growth of our student athletes. Crisis or no crisis, our purpose is to resource our coaches to make the success, safety, and well-being of our athletes the real scoreboard. |
Clarity of Purpose [NIAAA]
