Brunswick High School launches leadership program for its student athletes

BRUNSWICK — Brunswick High School is beginning its Student Athletic Leadership Team program to promote leadership qualities in student athletes this school year. Brunswick City Schools' Athletic Director Jim Kovi said the program came to be because he was looking for a way to unify the different sports programs within the district's athletic department. He wanted to help create a culture where different programs and student athletes support one another. The SALT program encourages students to think about what kind of leadership qualities they already have, and what they can work on, he said. Students will meet with one another in these meetings several times a year to learn about and develop life skills. Seminars will also be held for parents. "We're at the ground level here, but I'm really excited to provide this type of programming for our student athletes and continue to grow what this model is," Kovi said. On Sunday, the first parent seminar was held, and topics like sportsmanship, mental health and life skills were discussed. Then on Monday, Mike Eger from an organization called Education Stadium spoke with athletes about leadership traits such as flexibility, calmness, enthusiasm and persistence. "Those are the skills that we use every day in our professions that these young men and women already possess, but they may not even know it," Kovi said. During the student meeting, athletes were encouraged to learn how to turn their individual goals into team goals and determine what kind of leadership style they follow. Later in the day, there was an open panel discussion on mental health in athletics. Kovi worked with the head varsity coaches to pick students who were best suited to take part in the program, he said. At Monday's meeting, nearly every varsity sport in Brunswick was represented by a student. It is important for athletes specifically to have leadership training because student athletes are often responsible for representing their sport and school in public, he said. "If you're going to inherently have some of that responsibility as a student athlete, then we should also teach you some of those foundational skills to navigate that," Kovi said. One of the main goals of the program is to further develop the skills that athletes learn by playing sports and apply those skills in other parts of their lives, he said. For instance, athletes can learn how to work through adversity and communicate both verbally and non-verbally by playing a sport. "They're very entrenched in this every day in their sport," Kovi said. "It's just helping them identify and then reinforce those skills." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.