CoachUp! Washington: Training 44,000 Coaches in SEL

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The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) and the University of Washington’s Center for Leadership in Athletics (UWCLA) are teaming up for CoachUp! Washington, an initiative aimed at providing social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum to all 44,000 Washington State school-based coaches and bringing more women into the coaching profession.  CoachUp! is one of 10 youth sports projects being supported and funded through the Million Coaches Challenge (MCC), an initiative of Susan Crown Exchange.  The goal of MCC is to train one million coaches by 2025 in effective youth development techniques.

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CoachUp! will take a multi-faceted approach to deepen SEL coaching practices across the state.  The evidence-based training will be offered both virtually and in person, ensuring that coaches at member schools are receiving foundational SEL principles and strategies through multiple avenues. The training will be piloted with a representative sample of coaches at the outset of the project, refined, then extended to the remainder of the coaches in the state by 2023.

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Tom Farrey to Speak at 3rd Annual Metzler (Virtual) Lecture – October 15th (Free)

Tom Farrey, Aspen Project Play
Tom Farrey, Aspen Institute’s Project Play

Press Release Written by Claire Miller

Tom Farrey, executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, will be the featured speaker for the 3rd Annual Mike and Terry Metzler Distinguished Lecture, scheduled for Friday, Oct. 15, at 11 a.m. est.

He will give a presentation entitled, “How to Put the Youth Back in Youth Sports.”

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Celebrate Family PE Week October 4-8

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Active Schools and OPEN invite you to participate in “Family PE Week” October 4-8, 2021. The goal of Family PE Week is to help families, schools, and communities understand the importance of physical education.

There are many ways to celebrate such as participating in our Active Family Challenge and finding new ways to incorporate PE at home as a family. We will be sharing fun and engaging activities for students, staff, and families throughout the week.

“Family PE Week” is co-sponsored by Active Schools and OPEN. View resources and register for free HERE. We have also created a Resource Tour Video for you to explore the many resources we will be sharing throughout the week!

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The Clock is Running on Breast Cancer Prevention: Tips to Share With Students

With our students focused on making the varsity squad, getting into their dream college, and which TikTok video just went viral; they are losing sight that their lifestyle choices can have a dramatic lifelong impact on their breast health. The mammary gland in young men and women undergoes significant structural changes during puberty. As a result, chemical and environmental exposures during the teen years can heavily influence breast tissue (Terry et al., 2019).

According to the National Cancer Institute (2020), one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and male breast cancer is on the rise. It’s imperative to highlight prevention techniques in high school. These are the top tips to share with your students to lower their risk:

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Becoming a Better Coach: A Look Back on a 25-Year Coaching Partnership

Coach Rick Unruh with the Broncs after the '83 State Championship game.
Coach Rick Unruh with the Broncs after the ’83 State Championship game.

The sun broke through the late autumn clouds as we followed our captains off the field, gravel crunching beneath our shoes. As always, the five-minute walk was a time to process. I prioritized possible defensive adjustments. It was halftime of our 1997 Montana state championship football game, and we were down 20 – 7 against the highest-scoring team in the state. Though we had played well enough to stay in the game, three turnovers in our own territory had cost us. Nearing the locker room, Tim, the head coach, bumped my elbow and nodded towards four young men (later we learned, former opponent players) walking alongside our captains. One of the young men said, “So you’re number one in the state? Sure, doesn’t look like it.” To which another added, “That’s hard to believe! Sure, as hell won’t be much of second half.”

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Our three captains kept walking without saying a word, we looked at one another, having a good idea of what was going through their minds—stay focused, trust the process, fix the mistakes, and play the second half. Turnovers aside, our offense had rushed for 130 yards. And our defense had played well, shutting down the opponent’s running game and pressuring their quarterback, perhaps the best passer in the state that year. He had thrown for nearly 200 yards and made a handful of spectacular plays, by avoiding pressure and scrambling to find an open receiver. We watched our captains confidently walk into the locker room.

By the fall of ‘97, Tim and I had coached together for 21 years. In those years our football teams had been in the Montana state football playoffs 14 times. Though we appreciated the challenges of coaching in playoff games, our greatest satisfaction came from the days and hours we spent coaching 60-70 high-school boys throughout the season, including the constant challenge of making ourselves better coaches who could identify and apply adjustments that would improve our program.

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Advocacy in Action: Strategies to Promote Community Physical Education and Physical Literacy

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(2 Minute Read)

Whitehead (2013, p.29) defines physical literacy as “the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activity throughout the life course.” As a concept, physical literacy underpins the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE America) National Standards and Grade level outcomes for K-12 Physical Education (2021). SHAPE America, as an organization, offers support, networking, and educational resources for health and physical educators throughout the United States. At present, the concept of physical literacy offers an opportunity for physical educators to embrace a practical and actionable platform that will advocate for quality physical education in the school setting and opportunities for all-age physical activity throughout the community. The following are three actionable strategies physical educators at all grade levels can adopt to establish and maintain a physically literate community.

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Transformational Leadership in Physical Education

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Leadership is a set of skills and practices that are available to physical education (PE) teachers. One of the leadership styles that I would like to introduce is “transformational leadership” because its leadership is highly related to fostering a positive environment, empowering students, and maximizing teaching. According to Bass (1990), four factors consist of transformational leadership: (a) idealized influence, (b) inspirational motivation, (c) intellectual stimulation, and (d) individual consideration. Each component includes meaningful values, benefits, and purposes for PE teachers. The focus of this article is to describe specific characteristics of transformational leadership and provide implications for PE teachers to incorporate and apply them in class.

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Idealized influence is about being a role model. Specifically, PE teachers should be skillful role models. Students need to be provided with a proper demonstration allowing them to improve performance and skills. Of course, it is impossible for PE teachers to master all kinds of physical activities or sports skills; however, PE teachers should keep developing skills, as well as acquiring new knowledge as much as possible. If PE teachers lack in some areas, they should seek training opportunities by attending professional development or conferences (e.g., SHAPE America/regional SHAPE conferences). PE teachers should be skilled so that they are able to demonstrate the techniques and skills as needed. Additionally, students are taught the importance of being physically active and life-long movers in PE (Corbin, 2002). Therefore, it would be beneficial for PE teachers to share their life experiences with students as role models. For example, PE teachers’ sharing experiences of taking part in any sports activities or playing sports can motivate students to increase their desire of being physically active (Kim et al., 2017). By demonstrating and sharing teachers’ personal experiences, students are more likely to accept the importance of regular physical activities. Transformational leadership requires PE teachers to lead students by doing, not simply by telling (Bass, 1990).

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