The lessons of athletics reach far beyond the scoreboard.
Dr. Alex Conaway, associate dean of students for school culture and belonging, explains in TEACH Magazine how involvement in athletics provides built-in opportunities to bolster students’ sense of self, resilience, confidence, and leadership skills.
“How Athletics Can Be One of the Most Powerful Classrooms” also shows how Cheshire Academy student-athletes and coaches live out the school’s core values of belonging, engagement, growth, and collaboration.
“I’ve seen how powerful it can be when a young person has a teammate or a trusted adult who sees something in them before they see it in themselves,” Dr. Conaway, a longtime basketball coach, writes. “That sense of belonging creates confidence and gives student-athletes the courage to learn from failure and keep improving. Everyone deserves that experience, not just the starters or the most talented players.”
At Cheshire Academy, students participate in a competitive team sport for two of the three seasons of every academic year as part of an afternoon program. Athletics is an important priority because it encourages all students to take pride in contributing to something bigger than themselves. Students not only build new relationships with classmates, they learn how to work as a team and support one another, and they continue to be lifelong learners through these afternoon activities.
Dr. Conaway has more than a decade of experience supporting students across community life, academics, and athletics. He co-founded All Access Training & Student-Athlete Development, Inc. to address a lack of resources for young people in his hometown of New Haven, CT, and holds a Doctor of Education in Global Sports Leadership from East Tennessee State University.
He recently shared his perspective in a thought-leadership essay, “Unlocking Innate Potential: A Holistic Approach to Student-Athlete Development” for Cheshire Academy.
Check out his new essay on the TEACH Magazine website.
