Pro and college athletes today seem to get into a lot of trouble if you pay attention to the media, as there are countless stories running daily about illegal, immoral, unethical, and unthinkable crimes and acts that regularly make the front page of the news. For student athletes, this is an incredibly difficult time to find good, solid role models to look up to, as it often feels like today’s elite-level athletes are always making the news – but for the wrong reasons. Obviously, there are many great athletes out there who do it the right way, but unfortunately they are not usually the ones that receive the headlines in the paper — instead, it’s the bad news stories that almost always take precedent (
Sports Success 360).With that being said, is it any wonder why today’s student athletes often struggle with the ascribed status of being “role models” in their leagues, schools, and communities, when their role models seem to always be getting into trouble??!Almost everyone I know agrees that “athletes are role models” (sorry Charles Barkley!), yet when I ask people about the specific training young athletes receive in order to responsibly live up to the “role model” status given to them for being athletes, I can count on one hand how many times I have actually heard about dedicated efforts to help student athletes develop as leaders. In essence, we want student athletes to be positive role models and to develop pro-social leadership skills, but we do little to actually teach these skills —- all while in the era of omnipresent media stories detailing every infidelity, crime, act of aggression, and various other blunders experienced by today’s elite-level athletes! It’s like we hand a youngster a uniform, and then expect that he/she will make good decisions, stay away from bad things, and engage in ongoing efforts to help other kids do the same positive things. No formal training – instead, simply expectations – along with the hopes that the youngster doesn’t watch too much ESPN and see all the bad stories about athletes making the news!In my opinion, we cannot continue to simply hope kids “get it” when they see their favorite sports heroes getting into trouble with the law — if we truly want kids to embrace the privilege of being a student athlete, and to learn the leadership skills necessary to become positive role models, then we must develop concerted efforts to help them in this pursuit. Unfortunately, simply sitting back and allowing kids to model what they learn through the media just doesn’t cut it.In central Ohio, we are making some headway in helping schools do a better job of embracing the importance of teaching student athletes the importance of leadership and positive role modeling. Increasingly more school administrators are beginning to see that student athletes — like it or not — are the most visible students in the school, and regularly receive the most attention for being an athlete. Therefore, teaching student athletes about leadership and positive role modeling can lead to big changes when it comes to school (and community) culture change!Of course, even with appropriate training and education, some student athletes are still going to make poor decisions (after all, they are still kids). However, an increasing number of people really are starting to get it when it comes to the necessities of working with student athletes to help them fully understand their ascribed status as “role model,” as well as reminding them of the privilege (not “right”) it is to play on the school’s sports teams. Pro-active training coupled by ongoing accountability really does contribute to positive school climate — leading to overall community success!If you are still waiting for your child’s school to take the needed steps to incorporate more training for student athletes, make your voice heard! With budgets being as tight as they are these days, it may require you along with others (i.e. booster club) to subsidize training costs. As a family, you can also teach the importance of role modeling at home through focused conversations and Q & A. if you need help getting started, check out
Student Athletes as Leaders on and off the Field:
