Why respect your opponent? Teaching sportsmanship must be explicit, coaches find.
Sports idols perform touchdown dances, update Twitter feeds constantly, and are often caught behaving badly off the field. Young athletes connected with social media are engulfed by an athletics culture where civility, respect and general sportsmanship are hard to find. Neither athletes nor coaches can ignore the prevailing tides. In this environment, how do coaches impress student-athletes with the value of fair conduct; respect for oppo nents, teammates and offi cials; winning and losing graciously? How do you make sure athletes practice...
read moreAn Individual Sport Where Team Culture Is the Winner
In New England, swimming is a winter-season sport. Swimmers come in from the cold, peel off the layers, pull on their suits (still wet from the day before, in some cases), slip into their lanes and push their bodies to exhausting limits. Their motivation comes from their love of the sport, and at Milton it also comes from a supportive and fun team culture that the coaches work hard to foster. Twenty-four years ago, with David Foster (English faculty and, earlier, college counselor), Coach Bob Tyler brought the coed Milton swim team from club...
read moreA Win-Win Proposition
Alumni athletes are volunteer coaches Athletic coaches at Milton motivate, mentor and challenge their student athletes. They are also masters at multitasking—dealing with schedules, injuries, equipment and travel logistics. Some teams are getting additional help from alumni athletes who return to campus as volunteers. They assist team coaches in a variety of sports. Word of mouth, chance encounters and individual initiatives have increased the alumni presence in coaching over the past few years. “They are a nice addition to our athletic...
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