Alaska STARS has always held the vision and intention of having a larger impact to its student-athletes beyond basketball development. While the program does have a positive effect on the participants' character, this benefit is a by-product of the basketball development effort.
The future of Alaska STARS needs to have a concerted and distinct effort to help develop the participants' soft-skills (character, pesonality, ethics, communication, leadership) and hard-skills (math, science, language). That has been the vision all along; a vision that, when realized will benefit the program's participants and distinguish the program from those that focus solely on basketball skills.
Coming soon to a basketball development program in Alaska.......near you......
How do you think this can be best implemented? What are the potential pitfalls?
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Is this going to work like a classroom or a school? Are kids graded? Are grades or effort linked to the basketball development? What about equity in effort among players? These are all valid issues.
ReplyDeleteInteresting question...here's what I think.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I think that the program could benefit from non-basketball activities specifically surrounding the topic of this blog. For example, having one day per week or bi-weekly (mandatory) dedicated to some type of study hall couldn't hurt the players. Program participants could then get assistance for classes that they struggle in. Help could come from various resources such as parents, peers, college students looking for credit, etc. They could utilize gym time or possibly meet at the library which is free.
As for character building, I suggest that community service activities be planned at least once monthly (or every couple of months). The principle applied should be that if a business or other entity donates to the program, we should in turn provide some service to that business in support of their donation. Program participants should be mandated to perform the scheduled community service activity or be suspended from program activities for a specific period of time. By making this a required activity, the program builds the character of these young men which also helps them out when applying for colleges and/or obtaining scholarships by providing community service credit. It also legitimizes the program as one that looks beyond just building a team of players.
With those activities occurring regularly, there should be plenty of opportunities to develop STUDENT-ATHELETES and not just "jocks". Efforts should be made to check grades regularly by obtaining progress reports from the participants. In the event of a violation the consequences associated should be implemented immediately. Those consequences shouldn't be harsh enough to not allow the participant to recitify the situation but instead strongly encourage resolution.
I could go on and on but my comments should probably generate some responses which I look forward to reading.
Coach Jesse's comments align well with what I think STARS has dabbled into with some success, but needs to be fully committed to going forward.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of "service to our sponsors". Never thought of that. I like it.
I like Alaska STARS having a greater committment to establishing academic standards and enforcing them. We haven't been as stringent and consistent as we should have.
Community service needs to be a core fundamental of the organization.
This is going to require parent involvement to succeed. Parents who will help identify/arrange community opportunities, volunteer tutors, etc. It will require full buy-in and committment at all levels. It will require a formalization that we have never yet seen. For instance, I would like to use the website to have a page about EACH player and their position on the team and their academic/community activities outside of basketball.
You know this all sounds good but when kids dont participate equally and when they dont complete mandatory requirements you are going to have some fo the same situation Stars sees now with no really enforceable standards.
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