RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK– The North Carolina High School Athletic Association held its fall 2005 Coach-Captain Retreat over the weekend, the 22nd in a series of successful events.
The event, part of the Association’s Student Services program, was held at the Radisson Governors Inn October 22-23 and attracted students from all over North Carolina.
Retreat teams include student-athletes who will be captains or leaders of their athletic squads in the coming year, a coach from the school and a parent representative. They are designed to promote the concept of “teamwork.” Issues such as leadership development, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, violence prevention strategies and academic success are addressed at these retreats, the first of which was held in the spring of ‘95.
The retreats are designed to help student-athletes define leadership qualities, identify key
issues that affect them, learn to communicate effectively with other students and adults about these issues, and then to understand what captains can do to use their influence to prevent problems and promote healthy lifestyles.
Coach-Captain retreats are organized and administered by NCHSAA assistant executive director Mark Dreibelbis, student services assistant Chiquana Dancy, and Jason Gipe, a trainee with student services.
“Student Services is the ‘value-added’ division of the NCHSAA,” said Dreibelbis. “The Coach/Captain Retreat emphasizes the responsibility of student- athletes to take their leadership skills and implement programs promoting positive life skills and total development through athletics to both their school and community. Having the opportunity to develop these initiatives and assist in their implementation is what Student Services is all about. Our programs do make a difference and create winners for life.”
Facilitators included the following NCHSAA Student Services Trainers: Mike Brown, retired athletic director from the New Hanover County schools and president of B&M Associates; P.J. Taylor, former coach at Williamston High and safe and drug free schools coordinator for the Martin County Schools; Patrick Gunn, a teacher and coach at Topsail High School; Teresa Coleman, a teacher and coach at West Bladen; Faye Corbin, a teacher and coach at Hope Mills South View; and Joey Womble, director of the alternative school for the Washington County schools.
Teams always conclude their retreat experience by developing an action plan, something that can be taken back and executed in their local school. Among the components of the action plan are bulletin boards in the school, public service announcements for the school intercom, a community service project, a newsletter for student-athletes and other school/community ideas generated by the team.
New initiatives have also helped another one of the NCHSAA’s Student Services programs, the DREAM (Daring for Role Model Excellence as Athletic Mentors) teams, as part of this Coach-Captain retreat. The DREAM team seeks to identify high school student-athletes to go to elementary and middle schools to present forums on such topics as respect, sportsmanship, leadership and healthy lifestyles. New DREAM teams from Concord and Alexander Central attended the retreat and commitments came from Grimsley, McDowell and Bishop McGuinness, among others, to establish DREAM teams at their schools.
In addition to the staff, there were 110 participants in the retreat, with a total of 75 student-athletes and 35 adults attending. The adult total included 21 coaches, representing a total of 19 different schools.
Teams at the retreat represented the following schools:
Alexander Central, Concord, Greensboro Grimsley, Greenville D.H. Conley (two teams), Hope Mills South View, Kernersville Bishop McGuinness, Matthews David Butler (two teams), Misenheimer Gray Stone Day School, McDowell, Midway, North Wilkes, Northampton-West, Perquimans, Person, Southern Alamance, Tarboro, Weldon, Wilmington Hoggard, and Wilmington Laney.
