This article was written by Beryl Ann Burton
Athleadership is a summer youth development program for North Minneapolis high school athletes teaching our youth to become more focused, with a positive mindset and tools for much improved academics, sports and relationships.
Athleaders are effective role models and teachers, as they themselves have used the practices and principles for their own success and leadership. The program will run in Folwell Park Monday and Wednesday mornings starting July 8.
As Folwell Neighborhood leaders learned about the program, they knew that this could be a valuable tool for the youth in our neighborhood. We met with Jane Barrash from the Continuum Center, the developer of the Athleadership program.
She told us that back in 2013 the North High Polars were in last place in the city conference, and the team and the school struggled academically. North High (which in the 1950s and ‘60s had 1,200 students) had recently been threatened with closure and had only 165 students. The school hired a new basketball coach, Larry McKenzie (the winningest coach in MN high school boys basketball history), and he asked Jane Barrash to help him turn the Polars around. In late November 2013 Barrash joined as the Polars’ vision, focus and mindset development coach.
Two hours a week during the basketball season, Jane brought the “Discovery of Self” curriculum to the players and she conducted a special set of pre-game drills to get the boys optimized. They went from a 3-7 record at the start to a finish as #1. By year three they were state champions, with a 95 percent graduation rate and 75-80 percent on the A/B honor roll. In addition to Coach McKenzie’s technical and strategic coaching expertise, a sign of his leadership was knowing he needed help to turn the boys’ thinking, emotions and behaviors around, and he trusted Barrash to provide that.
By year two the JV coach at North, Mike Shelton, asked her to work with his team and from the success of that Barrash and Shelton teamed up to launch Athleadership, a summer youth development program with North Minneapolis high school athletes teaching youth to become more focused, with a positive mindset and tools for much improved academics, sports and relationships. Athleaders are effective role models and teachers of elements of the Discovery of Self curriculum as they themselves have used the practices and principles for their own success and leadership.
The Discovery of Self curriculum provides transformative information and inner resource strengthening strategies for new levels of self-awareness and self-mastery over reactive emotions and behaviors. Youth will learn new, engaging, immediately useful things about their brain and how to tap into the “other 90” we aren’t developing. They will hear stories that inspire hope, practice skill-building for focus, and play games to get their brains, their minds and their imagination working in new ways!
Athleadership has been at sites including Boys and Girls Club and LaCreche for three years, and this summer is expanding to Folwell Park for 10-14 year olds. Contact the Folwell Neighborhood Association, info@folwell.org or 612-643-1686, to register or for more info.