Topic #83 Finishing the Year STRONG by winning the Wells Fargo 4A Cup

This award is a great honor for our school community as the year finishes ups.  As a supporter for this athletic program for the last 5 years I’d like to share my perspective why I believe this success has come to our school, so other schools can explore and seek to apply these principles.  I remember my high school Health and Physcial Education teacher Mr. Springer and how he was a tool to encourage me to higher goals.  I believe every young athlete deseves the opportunity to participate in sport teams and learn fundamental movement patterns that support successful athletic teams.

This year our Strength and Conditioning/Health and Physical Education program was able to touch almost 70% of all students in all sports.  This is a great accomplishment I’d like to reflect back to the vision of Mr. Jason Curtis, Mrs. Nancy Barkan, Todd Schuler, and Dean Monroe.

Here are the principles I believe have lead to success of our athletic program:

1.  Sport Coaches can really coach their sport skills:  The way our sport coaches care and seek to inspire our students is excellent and admirable.  They use refined teaching skills that encourage faith, service, and leadership.

2. Student-athletes develop great chemistry and leadership:  On the field the captains determine the ultimate success.  Students learn how to work together in their roles to support the sport coaches’ strategic and tactical approaches. 

3. Administration and leadership care and support the process:  We have a great administration who works hard to provide opportunities from Freshmen to Seniors.  This makes a big difference in our culture when youth are dropping out of sports.  This gives younger students an opportunity to learn and have fun, then compete.

4. The school community encourages character development:  There has been no substitute for teaching young students the value to becoming Godly people which contributes to society as they participate.

5. Support staff work tirelessly behind the scenes:  From the front office to the business office to the special administrators this school seeks to work together.  As a part of this group I want to say thank you to those behind the scenes.

I remember in my initial interview at Cardinal Gibbons in October 2013, the Assistant Principal and I had the opportunity to meet with 10 students who were involved in the classroom and on the field.  Among other things we discussed the culture of the school and how students were involved with fine arts and athletics in the same day.  We discussed the way the school seeks to encourage a balance of participation in extra-curricular activities inside and outside the school.  Each year the goal is to have each student involved in a club, team, or program.

When asked about my vision for the strength and conditioning program I talked about having consistent particpation and the opportunity to monitor the training programs.  This was before we developed our mission to:

“Create a positive environment that is relational and gets results.”  (Credit to the assistant coaches of the spring 2015 Coach Amer, Blaser, and Blum)

As a final reflection on the year I see my role is to teach the technical side of weightlifting technique, speed, and agility and help my students see the connection to how growing in STRENGTH transfers to life skills that can be used later on.  This year we qualified for the STRENGTH of America award for the 2nd time in school history which will be highlighted in the Fall.  This shows the sustainable growth of our program over the last few years.  I give all the credit to past assistants who have mentored our student athletes and teams so they are not only better players but better people who become better citizens.

I hope this short perspective encourages you in our efforts to “Form life and movement skills” at your school.

Chris Morland, MS, RSCC *D