You always want to reward hard work as often as you can. Some of our athletes are doing some noteworthy achievements. Do I think these achievements will be a direct correlation to whatever athletic success they have? Maybe.
If they are demonstrating these positive traits here, then I have no doubt that they are demonstrating them with their team.
We started something a few years ago called the Captaincy. We offer the title of Captaincy to a few of our athletes we feel represent our values in a positive manner. Recently, we named two more athletes Captain. Owen Muetzel and Ben Lam are two 8th graders that have really grown, physically as well as emotionally, during their time with us and earned the right to be a captain.
We also like to reward consistency. If you are consistently doing the right things, then there is a better chance something positive will happen as a result. We have a handful of athletes that have trained with us 200+ sessions. We make a big deal about it by having them sign a symbolic Gold Star we have on the wall and we also give them some special hoodies.
This quarter 3 athletes reached that special plateau. Owen and Chase Muetzel and Hayley Williamson all hit that mark. Hayley is also one of our facility Captains. You don’t just go to a place 200 times unless you are seeing some positive change. We see the change happening in the facility and they must see the change happening in their playing. Congrats!!
As some of you know, we have a record board at the facility hanging. Anyone who does training with us, does an assessment and part of that assessment is doing various tests. Ben Lam set two records in his age group back in February. He has a birthday and does another reassessment and sets two more records – vertical and broad jump – in his new age group. Not bad!
Brenna Callahan also had a reassessment recently and broke the planks record for her age group. Both Brenna and Ben are working hard to get ready for track this spring. Looks like they are on the right track (HA)!
These kids work hard and deserve a little recognition. Does it mean they will have an awesome athletic career, absolutely not.
BUT…
As I was looking at our Captain’s board and record board, I’m looking at the names. One female record holder just committed to play beach volleyball in college. Another athlete will be kicking at Princeton next year. Another athlete was running in the high school state track and field championships this past June. Another athlete was the Big Ten defensive player of the year in basketball.
Needless to say, there is some pedigree there for success. Let’s hope it rubs off on these athletes.
