Collegiate School Athletics Task Force Report- Part Two

Athletics Task Force Report Part Two • August 2014

Athletics Task Force Report Part II • August 2014

Introduction Collegiate School’s Athletics Task Force is pleased to conclude a comprehensive assessment of the School’s athletics program by providing Part II of the Athletics Task Force Report.

This report includes strategic recommendations designed to ensure the future success of Collegiate’s athletics program.

The Athletics Task Force released preliminary results of its findings in February 2014, when Part I of this report was produced. Part I included details about the comparative size and scope of Collegiate’s program, changing patterns of participation in athletics programming among Collegiate students, and external trends in youth and high school sports that are increasingly impacting our student athletes. Part I also featured the results of a survey that engaged nearly 1,200 Collegiate stakeholders and provided an invaluable perspective on the School’s athletics program, both as it exists today and as it might look in the future.

As Part I of the report forms the foundation of the Athletics Task Force’s continuing work and provided the essential context for this document, readers of Part II of the report are encouraged to review that document first. You may download Part I of the Athletics Task Force Report here.

Objectives In Part II of its report, the Athletics Task Force: Reaffirms the core values of Collegiate’s athletics program.

Sets forth the Athletics Task Force’s strategic recommendations, rationale and next steps for each recommendation.

Outlines the Athletics Task Force’s remaining duties and timeline.

Offers ways for stakeholders to provide feedback on the Task Force’s findings.

Core Philosophy and Values of Collegiate’s Athletics Program The Athletics Task Force identified, reviewed and carefully considered Collegiate’s historic philosophy and values related to the athletics program to guide the formulation of strategic recommendations.

The historic philosophy and values of Collegiate athletics are defined as follows: Academics-Athletics Balance: The Collegiate School athletics program is focused on student development and seeks to achieve athletic excellence through values-based coaching, student leadership opportunities, and a school culture that understands the mutually supportive role that athletics play among academics, the arts and other school programs.

Petey Jacobs, former Collegiate coach and athletics director

Values-Based Approach: Athletics teach valuable life lessons about work ethic, persistence, courage, leadership, the value of teamwork, and competing fiercely while exemplifying exceptional sportsmanship. The central purpose of Collegiate’s athletics is to instill these values and to promote opportunities for character development in every phase of the program.

Athletics Program Participation: Given the importance of athletics in instilling lifelong principles, Collegiate values and requires a base level participation in the School’s athletics program. Participation requirements are appropriately calibrated to support student development.

Diversity of Experiences: Collegiate’s philosophy holds that diverse athletics experiences promote lifelong fitness and expand opportunities to lead and grow through sports. Collegiate therefore seeks to enhance student growth across a range of athletic experiences, rather than encouraging over-specialization in a single sport.

Sportsmanship Focus: In order to provide an optimal setting for student character development, Collegiate values and promotes good sportsmanship among athletes, coaches, parents and fans.

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Like-minded Competitors: Collegiate seeks to engage in sporting endeavors with schools that share our philosophy, to ensure that our values are further reinforced in interscholastic competition.

Teacher-Coach Model: Based on the holistic perspective the School’s athletics program requires, Collegiate seeks to employ coaches who are part of the faculty, staff or alumni base, and who understand the culture and fit of athletics in the school’s overall philosophy.

Since the inception of the Athletics Task Force’s work – whether in deliberations by the Board of Trustees, conversations within Collegiate’s administrative leadership team, informal discussions with students, coaches, parents and alumni, or feedback from stakeholders in the survey – the commitment to the historic philosophy and values of the athletics program has been unwavering.

This commitment is clearly understood and supported in the Collegiate community, notwithstanding the fact that these values appear to be less important to some of the School’s league partners and, more broadly, in regional and national high school athletics.

Given the broad understanding of, agreement with and firm support for Collegiate’s philosophy and values, the Athletics Task Force embraced this perspective both in examining the shifting landscape facing Collegiate’s current athletics program and in forming strategic recommendations for the program’s future.

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Athletics Task Force’s Strategic Recommendations The Athletics Task Force has identified five strategic recommendations for continuing discussion with the broader school community about Collegiate’s athletics programming. What follows is a brief description of these recommendations, the critical factors shaping each of these considerations, and the proposed next step.

1. Increased Support for Quality Coaching: Develop an innovative model for effective

professional development for coaches.

Background: Collegiate employs 140 coaches to lead its 83 cub, JV and varsity teams. Forty percent of these coaches also have primary roles as teachers or staff in the School. This staffing strategy for athletics – commonly referred to as the “teacher-coach model” in independent schools – encourages philosophical consistency across the various programs of the School, adds valued dimensions to adult/student relationships and enables a financially efficient approach to employing coaches. These benefits are increasingly difficult to realize, however, as coaches face growing demands on their time and rising expectations of excellence from all of their coaching, teaching, student support and administrative responsibilities at Collegiate.

Part-time “outside” coaches make up the rest of the athletics program staff when suitably qualified teacher-coaches cannot be recruited and matched to full-time positions. Orientation and professional development for all coaches competes with their other school responsibilities and the time required by team practice, competition and administration. At the same time, athletes and parents look to our coaches for ever-increasing expertise, personal attention and communication.

Recommendation: The Athletics Task Force recommends creating a professional development model for Collegiate’s teacher-coaches that integrates opportunities for continual improvement into daily routines and responsibilities.

This recommendation includes providing coaching feedback and professional development within the course of the normal school day.

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This recommendation also includes the creation of a new position of master coach, who can focus primarily on the professional development of Collegiate’s teacher-coaches.

2. Team Sports and Alternatives: Develop opportunities to participate in team sports

accessible and appropriate for all students.

Background: Part I of the Athletics Task Force Report detailed how Collegiate is experiencing a growing demand for alternatives to traditional team sports – historically the most common way students fulfilled the school’s two-season participation requirement. These alternatives currently include fitness, yoga, outdoors activities and dance, as well as individual waivers for sports ranging from equestrian competition to rowing. Growing interest in these activities is driven by several factors, including higher skill thresholds for beginning team sports due to ever-younger participation in organized teams. This trend also contributes to an environment with more intense demands on JV and varsity athletes.

Our students also have increasingly more diverse interests that include non-team-based athletics, such as the arts and community service. However, the unique values and skills learned from participation in team sports remain central to Collegiate’s approach to helping each student grow in all dimensions of their development.

Recommendation: The Athletics Task Force recommends renewed emphasis on student participation in Collegiate’s team sports at appropriate levels during a student’s school career. To accomplish this objective, changes to the Cub/JV/Varsity programs should be developed to support wider participation in school-sponsored teams and the benefits of team exposure, while also supporting a broader array of student abilities and interests. Specific focus should be given to the emphasis and expectation of team participation at the Cub and JV levels versus the flexibility that might be given to Junior and Senior students. The Task Force offers this recommendation recognizing the significant challenge that remains in finalizing the details of this approach. This work would include modification of the waiver policy in order to align it with the final plan.

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Strategic Recommendations cont.

3. Helping Student Athletes Realize their Potential: Support student athletes who

aspire to college-level athletics meet their goals.

Background: Over the past decade, as much as one-fifth of Collegiate’s graduating classes have entered college with plans to participate in interscholastic varsity athletics. Far from seeking alternatives to team sports, many of these students feel pressure to specialize in their chosen sport, whether through participating in out-of-season training or community-based “elite� teams. Collegiate varsity coaches are often called upon for guidance in navigating the college recruiting process that is beginning at earlier ages and becoming more time-consuming each year. Ensuring that athletes with the ambition to play at the college level have the support they need, while communicating the objectives and resource limitations of our program, is a key opportunity for Collegiate athletics.

Recommendation: The Athletics Task Force recommends reviewing practice and training policies to ensure that the right balance is achieved to serve all athletes.

The Task Force further recommends that the school conduct a study to ensure that the level of support services provided by College Counseling and the Athletics Department meets the reasonable needs of student athletes who are interested in college-level sports.

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4. League Standards and Affiliations: Aggressively advocate for and align with

like-minded schools that support sensible league rules and standards that establish and support an even playing field.

Background: Many Collegiate stakeholders have commented on the growing divergence of philosophies and practices among our league partners. Whether manifested through recruiting of athletes or through more intensive practices and specialization, or both, it is apparent that Collegiate athletes do not always face an even playing field in interscholastic competition. Clearly, different schools are motivated by different factors, but the time is right for stronger alignment of philosophy, values and practices among league schools.

Recommendation: The Athletics Task Force recommends immediately proceeding with substantive and sustained discussions with the member schools of the Prep League (boys) and the League of Independent Schools (girls) about developing common standards and guidelines for our athletics programs.

This recommendation includes aligning with like-minded schools to create a path forward in this critically important initiative.

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Strategic Recommendations cont.

5. Program Leadership and Management: Create a more effective management

structure and assessment system to enable Collegiate’s athletics program to adapt and excel in a changing environment.

Background: Independent school athletics programs in Central Virginia are in flux as they follow broader trends in public and private schools nationally. The expectations of athletes, parents, coaches, colleges and even spectators around issues such as individual and team competitiveness, specialization, and pursuit of college athletic participation and scholarships have increased significantly in recent years. These trends are challenging many of the fundamental assumptions and practices that form the basis for leading and managing school athletics programs.

For athletics programs like Collegiate’s that have a history of success, it is essential that leadership and management practices evolve at a pace that is at least equal to the pace of change inherent to these evolving trends. To do so, a framework must be developed for continuous strategic analysis of leadership and management practices - practices that must be nimble so as to be easily adaptable to the dynamic characteristics of modern athletic programs. Collegiate has demonstrated exceptional leadership in areas such as global education and economic education. The School’s innovative spirit makes it uniquely qualified to develop similar leading-edge strategies and programs for athletics.

Recommendation: While the Athletics Task Force strongly commends the Athletics Department’s current leadership, the goal of this recommendation is to create a structure that best supports the policy directions advanced in this document, and provides a more comprehensive, ongoing review of the shifting landscape. The Athletics Task Force recommends retaining a management consultant to perform a comprehensive study of the organizational structure and policies of Collegiate’s athletics program, culminating with strategic recommendations regarding the most effective structure to employ going forward. This new structure would include more thorough and sophisticated data-gathering and feedback mechanisms. Such a system would inform responsive decision-making, as well as manage the expected and unintended consequences of the policy directions set forth in this document.

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Immediate Next Steps The current environment for independent school athletics is dynamic, and the Athletics Task Force’s entire process revealed multiple interdependent variables in Collegiate’s athletics program. The five strategic recommendations set forth in Part II of this report are intended to serve as broad, strategic policy recommendations to help guide the next steps in these new directions.

The Athletics Task Force is not a permanent or standing board subcommittee. The active work of the Athletics Task Force will conclude by December 31, 2014 with the facilitation and support of several immediate next steps – proactive steps that the School will take now to make a positive difference for our athletes and promote the continuing success of Collegiate’s athletics program.

These steps include: 1. Continue fundraising to take advantage of a generous challenge grant that the Edward E. Ford Foundation has offered Collegiate. This grant will support a “coach of coaches” model and create a new position in the athletics program. This new resource will focus on helping coaches meet individual goals for improvement within the context of their daily practice and game schedules. A number of donors have stepped forward, but we still need to raise additional funds before the challenge deadline of December 2014. This effort is a priority.

2. Initiate conversations with Prep League and LIS schools concerning the addition of more explicit rules, standards and enforcement processes to the leagues’ constitutions.

Informal discussions have revealed significant interest in this effort and a desire to collaborate in finding good solutions. In the near term, this process needs to be formalized and a timeline created for completing various phases of this effort.

3. Retain specialized assistance to analyze and recommend structural and policy practices that best address the rapidly changing environment facing the School’s athletics program.

This process will also provide recommendations on the data-gathering and feedback mechanisms necessary to better support and inform the management and leadership of Collegiate athletics.

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Immediate Next Steps cont.

4. Gather feedback from Collegiate’s stakeholders on this Part II Strategic Recommendations Report: There is a high level of interest and engagement in athletics among students, faculty, staff, parents and alumni. This has guided the Athletics Task Force’s deliberate and inclusive community-wide approach in shaping the future of Collegiate’s athletics program. Part I of this report included a comprehensive formal survey conducted by the Southeastern Institute of Research that garnered thoughtful feedback from over 1,000 Collegiate stakeholders. The Athletics Task Force would like to continue receiving community-wide feedback. To this end, a short survey will be conducted in fall 2014 to gather stakeholders’ reactions and comments to this report.

5. Utilize a comprehensive feedback and data gathering methodology in the fall of 2014 to assist the Athletics Task Force in finalizing its recommendations. This more comprehensive approach will seek extensive feedback from representatives from all stakeholder audiences: student athletes and non-athletes, parents, teacher-coaches, administration, alumni and others. The goal is to gather input on and gain greater appreciation of the many nuances surrounding Collegiate’s athletics program existing policies, as well as the potential impact of the recommendations set forth in this document. This research will also be informed by the initial observations of the consultant (Immediate Next Step #3) and findings from the survey (Immediate Next Step #4). This process will culminate with key takeaways for the preparation of the Athletics Task Force’s final report and recommendations to the Board of Trustees.

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Conclusion The Collegiate Athletics Task Force has completed the research and analysis of key issues facing Collegiate athletics. All of this work has been accomplished at a time when Collegiate stakeholders see the School’s athletics program in a position of strength, with opportunities to improve but no crises to resolve. Further, there is broad consensus around the guiding philosophy and values undergirding Collegiate athletics, and the prospect of renewed vision with the arrival of the school’s new head in July 2014.

All of these factors point toward a strategy of carefully considered and incremental change, planned with broad input and a view toward anticipating and shaping the future rather than being subject to it.

The Athletics Task Force will work toward finalizing the policy recommendations described in this report by re-engaging the Collegiate community in the process, as outlined above (Recommendation #4). The Athletics Task Force’s final recommendations will be delivered to the Collegiate Board of Trustees. Once approved by the board, the final report will be widely disseminated.

The singular goal of the Athletics Task Force’s final report will be the strengthening of our school’s athletics program while maintaining Collegiate’s integrity and time-honored values.

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Athletics Task Force Members Mark Hourigan, Chair Karen Doxey Bonnie Cricchi Paul Koonce John Martin John Stallings John Walker

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demonstrated below.

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