Project Based Leadership

It is not quite the end of the month, but I don't see much else happening over the next few days on this front, so I might as well report now. As the reader knows from previous entries, my chosen requirement was to help promote lifelong physical activity at Onoway High School by helping to provide more opportunities for youth to be active. The first phase of this project is aimed at the Junior and senior badminton programs at the school.

Traditionally, the junior and senior badminton season is a full 3 weeks - in March. For the last 4 years I have helped the teacher coaches and made suggestions for extending the practice season. However, the practices continued to consist of only 2 hours, 2x per week, for 2 weeks of unstructured time when the badminton nets are up and the students largely decide what they will do with their time, and who they will bat the birdie around with. If the student is not particularly athletic, they do not do that much to push themselves at the practice, and the teacher coaches do not do much to enhance their abilities on the court. If the student is already athletic, that student is likely to make the team. The less atheletic students are cut and the result is that their physical activity ends after two weeks, with no positive results: just negative reinforcements of the fact that these students are less athletic and thus feel discouraged from pursuing further physical activity.

Badminton is a particularly well suited sport for promoting physical activity to all levels of athleticism. Additionally, it is a very social, well structured, world-wide, and inexpensive sport that can become a part of anyone's lifelong physical activity. There is hope for any student of any age and ability to progress physically and technically, and find the sport both physically and socially rewarding. I feel this sport should be promoted alot more than it currently is at Onoway High School. My plan was to provide more opportunities for students to practice and play, whether or not they made the team; to provide fun experiences like a mini tournament, and to provide coaching experiences for the students to develop their skills hoping that this would motivate them to continue in the sport. Specifically, here's what I did.

1. I arranged for more gym space/time (the badminton practice season at school is short due to a shortage of gym space in Onoway), at the Red Willow Badminton Club. I secured the 4 Tuesdays in March for coached 2 hour badminton sessions, a Saturday for a mini fun tournament, and the opportunity for small groups to use the club in February. There was, of course a cost, but this was kept to $10/person. Transportation to the club and back was available in the form of the school bus, and some money earmarked for the badminton team through the school. The principal of the school was of course on side, he is a very positivie 'lets do this' kind of person. One would think, that getting the kids on the bus and to the sessions would have been a no-brainer. However, at the point the endeavor got to the teachers, the whole scheme fell flat on its face. It never happened. Go figure. I'm not sure what went wrong. The teachers did anounce the scheme, some students showed up for a lunch meeting to find out more. Then, what appeared to me, to be 'apathy' seemed to set in. The teachers were not satisfied with the number of students who had shown up- they decided to approach students individually once the badminton unit started in the phys. ed classes. Then the badminton unit in classes got delayed because social dance was pushed forward, ahead of badminton for some reason. Meanwhile, at Red Willow Badminton Club, St. Albert, Morinville and Spruce Grove teachers were banging on the door asking for coached sessions, and they had already collected the money and the students. The club manager was forced to fill the spaces originally booked for Onoway. I hung on to what I could. Badminton tryouts began - all two days of them, the team was selected. The precious students who were less athletic who didn't make the team were sent on their way for yet another year. Still, the teachers weren't ready to present the extra sessions to the qualifying students. Finally, last week, I gave up; the junior badminton teacher, now in week 2 of three practice weeks, told me there was not enough time. I guess you can't blame any one person; the apathy was pervasive amongst the students, and affecting the teachers also. The teachers themselves are very warm, supportive people. They have all gone the extra mile for both my daughters. I think the thing to do, is at the end of the season, get feedback from the teachers as to how we can be more successful next year.

2. To provide more coaching so that students at all levels of athletic ability and physical fitness can progress and be encouraged to continue with this or another physical activity, several things were initiated.
a) Badminton Alberta was approached and they agreed to provide an outreach workshop at Onoway High school. In this workshop, the coaches and a couple of student leaders on the badminton team would participate in the workshop, learning drills, how to teach them and how to coach. Now a funny thing happened with this one. Jeff, the person running these sessions for badminton alberta, called the elementary school instead of the high school. A teacher by the name of Mrs. Doyle, who loves badminton and whose entire family plays and we know her brother, jumped on the phone call, recognizing it for the opportunity it was. As a result, Badminton Alberta provided a full day workshop for the entire Onoway Elementary School on Tuesday March 24th. It was apparently a raving success. Not what I had planned, but at least the desired ripple was started. These elementary students will eventually go to Onoway High School. Onoway is 'on the map' for future sessions. Perhaps Mrs. Doyle will encourage the High school coaches accross the field.

b) As part of the personal development of my own daughter in the areas of acquiring life skills, and leadership skills in her community, Jill was enrolled in the NCCP coaching certification program level 1 this winter. Jill has already done some coaching at summer camps and lessons at the Red Willow badminton club, so she is past the stage of intimidation and fear when it comes to working with the many types of students that challenge the coaches. She has finished the course and is currently coaching both the junior and the senior badminton teams at Onoway high school. Jill is teaching the structured drills that were missing from the practices in previous years. She has introduced physical conditioning warm ups as well, something that came as a shock to many of the studens. She is somewhat of a role model too, for the young girls at the school. Last year, she was the first athlete from Onoway in any sport to qualify for the provincial championships, and she won silver. Students and teachers last year noted her badminton skills, and soon, teachers, and the male athlete of the year role model were lining up to play matches against her and try to win. The same is happening this year, and the spectating crowd is growing. Young girls are dragging their parents into the gym to point out jill playing against a grade 12 male. Jill is running the poor boy all over the court and he is drenched in sweat. Jill is setting a positive example to young girls, and the mothers are taking note - I am being approached with questions about badminton classes, camps and training, how Jill got to the level she is at, and so on. I take this opportunity to promote the sport and encourage the parents to get their children involved. I've made a mental note to provide the teachers with notices about summer badminton camps, classes, clubs etc so that they can be announced to the students or included in the school newsletter. Most importantly of all, when the game is over, and the boy picks himself off the floor, Jill and Kyle congratulate eachother and, together, they continue coaching the other team athletes, working as a coaching team and respecting eachother. This boy is not considered a role model in the school for nothing.

So I guess things didn't turn out they way I had imagined in phase one of my project based leadership. However, enough good things are happening and can be built upon in the future.

The second phase of this project begins very soon and I will report on it at the end of June. I'm going to help the track coach.

Claire Finnamore