The Student-Athlete Leadership Team (SALT) held their first meeting as a reinstituted program at the high school Monday, Nov. 16 before school.
Athletic Director Eli Goldberger said SALT is a volunteer-based organization targeted at students with leadership skills. The program meets every month at varying times and locations, Goldberger said.
Goldberger explained that the program is made up of captains and high-achieving student athletes from the high school’s sports teams.
“I reach out to coaches to get their recommendations for student athletes that they see as leaders in their program,” Goldberger said. “I take that list and reach out to see who would be interested in taking part.”
Goldberger added that leading team members are often unsure about how to motivate and lead their team towards their overall goals.
“A lot of the time we have people who are named captain by their coaches, but they’re not given any direction on what a captain is,” Goldberger said. “It’s not just someone who goes to the coin toss or leads stretches. There’s more to being a captain than those things.”
Goldberger said the Positive Coaching Alliance is the main partner of SALT. The Positive Coaching Alliance has researched the mental impact of positive and negative coaching on athletes, and Goldberger said they determined that players, athletic directors and parents need to do a better job educating on what a successful coach looks like.
Junior Solomon McDow said at the kickoff event there was a guest speaker from the Positive Coaching Alliance, Pamela Malone. McDow added that attendees were provided with the book “Elevating Your Game: Becoming a Triple-Impact Competitor.”
“She talked to us about being a triple impact competitor, which means you impact yourself, your team and your sport to try and improve all three things,” McDow said.
Goldberger said he is the facilitator of the program who oversees and organizes the meetings. He explained he organizes guest speakers from both the Positive Coaching Alliance and the high school staff.
The program hosts Zoom workshops for parents and coaches, Goldberger said, along with in-person meetings with the students where they discuss what leadership looks like both on and off the field.
He said that he initiated the program when he first began working at the school seven years ago and believes it is still a valuable program.
The goal of the program is to spread awareness about what character-based athletics is while also discussing the qualities of a leader, Goldberger said. There is more to be done in the education of sport viewers, coaches and players, he said.
“I think there’s a real need in high school athletics today, not only among our student athletes, but our parents and coaches, to understand what character in athletics is all about,” Goldberger said.
“She talked to us about being a triple impact competitor, which means you impact yourself, your team and your sport to try and improve all three things,” McDow said.
