The Boston Red Sox took 86 years to “reverse the curse” of the Bambino, and the Boston Celtics won the National Basketball Association championship for the first time in 16 years this past June. Clearly, championship teams are not born overnight.
The newly implemented Developing Character and Leadership in Sport (DECALS) program seeks to take the high school’s athletics to the next level by providing student-athletes with leadership tools beginning in their freshman year.
Implemented by Athletic Director Kyle Williams, the DECALS program aims to develop student-athletes as leaders, prepare them for captaincy and support them in creating a strong culture within their teams and athletics as a whole.
Williams said he hopes to equip younger student-athletes with leadership skills and resources to deepen their understanding of what it means to successfully take part in and captain a team. Leadership nights and lessons with guest speakers will be held to provide student-athletes with the opportunity to explore what it means to lead.
“That would be maybe 10 lessons of what it means to be a leader: how to care for yourself, how to care for others, leadership styles,” Williams said. “We would talk about mental health, we would talk about consent, we would talk about locker room culture, talk about belonging, all the things we would want to see in our leaders.”
On Monday, Sept. 23, a leadership night was held in the MLK room. Kristy Moore, a lecturer at Boston College who specializes in sports psychology, spoke to sophomore and junior student-athletes about different leadership styles and tools that can be used to combat conflict within a team.
Sophomore Izzy Wood plays basketball and attended the leadership night. Wood said that one of her main takeaways from listening to Moore was that a captain can take on many forms.
“You don’t always have to be the most vocal to still be a leader. But you can lead socially, but then also stand in the back, helping others and making sure they feel welcome,” Wood said.
Moore said that she enjoys how she can guide student-athletes to where they need to be in order to improve their experience within their sport. Moore said that witnessing growth among leaders that she has worked with has been a rewarding experience.
“When I’m working with an athlete and they make a breakthrough in understanding themselves in a new way, or they come back into the next session and say, ‘I tried that thing we did last week and it worked, I feel so much better,’ that is just the absolute best,” Moore said. “It feels like I’m just a guide, I’m a facilitator. I’ve helped them discover it in themselves.”
The guest speakers and lessons that the DECALS program offers are important in both educating student-athletes and also providing opportunities for connection among one another.
Wood herself said she saw people grow more comfortable as the night progressed.
“I liked it because I got to see the transition. Everyone got more comfortable with answering, responding to the prompts,” Wood said. “People started to open up and actually speak up. It was nice to see that transition because people were almost scared at first.”
Assistant Athletic Director Amanda Mortelette believes in the program’s ability to foster relationships across the sports community. Rather than players staying within their respective teams, the DECALS program promotes bonding over the passion each player has for athletics.
“Another way that enhances the experience is for kids on different teams to get to know each other and different leaders to learn from each other,” Mortelette said.
As not all sports teams practice or play within close proximity and interact with one another, the events held by the DECALS program, such as the leadership nights, are a crucial opportunity for teams and athletes to make connections.
Williams said he believes the DECALS program will offer guidance to student-athletes and develop them into players and leaders for their teams.
“There’s the standard of establishing what it means to be a Warrior, what it means to be a student-athlete here,” Williams said. “That’s both the expectations coming from us to the students, but it’s also the support and the curriculum and the work that will give students the tools to support and work with each other and to be more successful in their sport.”
