University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Share Leadership Lessons With Young Athletes
January 22, 2015 | Leadership Academy, Student-Athlete Development
By Kylee Wooten
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The Richard A. Baddour Carolina Leadership Academy's Leadership Lab held its first Carolina Sports Leadership Summit (CSLS) on Saturday, January 18 when more than 100 middle school athletes came to the Blue Zone for a three-hour leadership development camp. The Leadership Lab is the third level of the Leadership Academy, and since May 2014, UNC student-athletes have been planning for all aspects of the summit.
The Leadership Summit was conceived as a development camp designed for middle school-aged athletes looking to learn and grow as leaders on and off the field. The summit curriculum encompassed four different activities to highlight distinct aspects of leadership: vocal leadership, personal leadership, leading by example, and leading in a team setting. Participants spent 30 minutes at each station, engaging in an activity that would emphasize one of the key elements of leadership. After completing the activity, the group reviewed the main ideas and how they could apply them in their sports.
“I used to think that leadership was about talking, but I learned today that leadership doesn't always have to be vocal,” said Nicholas Young, an eighth-grader who plays hockey and lacrosse. “Being a leader by example is just as important.”
There were a lot of important components of the Leadership Summit, and the participants weren't the only ones learning. Caroline Price, a UNC senior who is a member of the women's tennis team, served as a wrangler for a group of students. Wranglers helped to oversee the groups as they moved from station to station. “Normally I'm taking part in the different activities, but this time I was the one overseeing them,” she said. “I was reminded how different everyone is, and that is helpful for me as a team captain to remember that everyone is different and responds and reacts in different ways.”
After months of planning for the summit, the hard work and dedication that the UNC student-athletes put into the event paid off in the end. Victoria McGee, a junior on the Carolina rowing team, experienced the great rewards of being a facilitation leader for one of the leadership activities. She worked with the Minefield Challenge, in which athletes sharpened their vocal leadership skills. Although McGee focused on vocal leadership, she learned to let others take the reins and change the direction.
“As a facilitator, you really want to let the kids run with it and see what they can do on their own, while you provide some framework and focus—it's a powerful to watch,” McGee exclaimed. “To see that process occurring in these middle schoolers, it really fires me up and I love it. I really had a blast, and I think that the kids did too—that's the most rewarding part to me.”
The participants were very excited as well, and they were ready to begin applying their leadership skills to their own teams. Elizabeth Agatucci is a field hockey player in the seventh grade, and was eager to bring her communication skills to her team. “I think that it's really important to keep things positive and to pump up your team,” she said. “I really liked the sandwich idea where you give a compliment, then a critique, and then another compliment.”
The fundamental leadership skills that were taught are not only important in the realm of sports, but also to the students' lives off of the field. Participants and parents alike commented on the importance that leadership skills could bring in many different aspects.
“My daughter learned new leadership qualities that she can take to the field, but also take to life. You can't get enough of that,” said Harris Vaughan. Harris's daughter is in the eighth grade and plays lacrosse. When her coach emailed the parents about the event, he forwarded it immediate to his wife and both sets of grandparents. “I said, 'This is the type of things that our kids should have the incredible opportunity to be exposed to,' and everyone wrote back saying 'Absolutely!'” Vaughan said. “They need to experience the values that the student-athletes taught them in the way that they taught them. It's one thing to hear it from their parents or their coaches, but to hear it from a UNC student-athlete is a different experience, and I think that it has more of an impact than we could ever have.”
Carla Overbeck, who played soccer for UNC and the U.S. National Team, also jumped at the opportunity to sign her daughter up for the summit.
“Any chance that I can get my middle school girl to get into a program like this, I will do it,” said Overbeck, who has been a dedicated speaker for the Leadership Academy for many years. “Any help with confidence and feeling good about themselves that they can transfer into any other sports at school or in the world is beneficial. Standing up for the things that are right and that that's okay is an important thing to learn at a young age.”
The first Leadership Summit was a great success. The hard work and dedication put in by the Leadership Academy was affirmed by the overwhelming amount of praise that the Summit received from the parents and participants.
Players Mentioned
