by Maxine Moss and Emilie Mueller
Trying to decide which elective to take next year? If you’re looking to become more involved in the M-A community and work alongside athletes and coaches, you may want to consider sports leadership. The elective plays a significant role in the success of M-A athletics and the celebration of the school’s athletic achievements.
Sports leadership is essentially the behind the scenes of athletics at M-A. Jaeden Barker explained how as part of the class, he gets to “hand out different things for sports players and set up for different games.” Lauren Collinsworth discussed how the class is “in charge of social media platforms” and gets to “represent Bear pride.”
The class is not only an incredible way to meet new people, but to meet people all throughout M-A. Teacher and Athletic Director Paul Snow described that “All of those cabinets for our Hall of Fame and current sports teams are cleaned and updated each year by sports leadership students. We also work closely with the trainer, Christine James, all the coaches, Boosters, and team parents. We work side by side with many of these individuals at our events, and my students have established close relationships with some of these valued members of the M-A community.” Ben Ferrick reflected on one of his favorite aspects of the class as being the opportunity to “meet some good friends…and athletes in other sports I might not have otherwise.”
According to sports leadership teacher Paul Snow, “The vast majority of those that come to enjoy a football game don’t understand what it takes to put on an event like this. My class has been amazing at helping make our football games an event for all fans to remember.” Whether it be “working the snack shack, running the scoreboard, setting up the field, running water to the players, cleaning up, etc. Everyone has a role and seeing them work together is satisfying to witness as their teacher.”
Collinsworth claimed that “It’s a decent time commitment because we have to complete 20 hours of sports related service a quarter, but we get into games for free and get more access to talk to players and coaches than the regular viewer.”
Check out bearsathletics.com, which sports leadership uses to “cover games and post summaries and scores, post articles from local media who may have covered one of our games, and highlight Athletes of the Week from M-A.”
