The findings of the Coaching Maine Youth to Success innitiative will be released in the fall.
By Kevin Mills
Staff Writer

ORONO – As John Jenkins finished spelling out what makes a great athletic program, his charge to a few hundred student-athletes was about the search for truth.

The letter “T” in a “G-R-E-A-T” sports program is based on truth, he said, and that was the foundation he wanted athletes to build from at Tuesday’s Maine Sports Summit.

“The future rests in your hands,” the former Lewiston mayor and state senator told them. “That’s what today is all about. Let’s open our hearts and minds and give flight to our dreams.”

From there student-athletes, coaches and administrators got the chance to tell it like it is in interscholastic sports.

“It was kind of cool that they actually asked for our opinions,” said Dawn Ross, a senior three-sport athlete at Gray-New Gloucester. “They wanted to know how we see it. That’s a good idea because sometimes they don’t look at it from our view, and fans don’t know what goes on in the locker room.”

As part of the Coaching Maine Youth to Success initiative, the summit at UMaine was an opportunity for athletes to express opinions and concerns about their experiences. Close to 300 students were in attendance, representing 87 high schools and 24 middle schools. The results will be reviewed and used to establish core practices and principles that the University of Maine Sports & Coaching Initiative will release in the fall.

“I thought it was important as kids to talk about how we think our parents are and how we see the coaches,” said Nate Bolduc, a senior football and lacrosse player at Mt. Blue. “So they can give advice to coaches on how kids feel towards them, and it’s not coming from any one player about any one coach.”

It not only gave students the chance to express views but hear others, giving them a broader perspective.

“I have awesome coaches, but some kids were complaining about how their coaches weren’t good role models, and they weren’t practicing what they preached,” said Nate Frechette, a junior hockey and tennis player at Winthrop. “I didn’t really expect that.”

After Jenkins’ address in the morning, the students broke into small groups, facilitated by panel members. They addressed sportsmanship, academics, parents, health and fitness, opportunities to play and the quality of coaching. Student-athletes filled out surveys and participated in discussions.

“The thing when you spend a day with kids is they’ll tell you what they’re thinking,” said panel member Colleen Quint, executive director for the Senator George J. Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute and a member of the Minot School Board. “They’re so quick to be able to put their finger on it. In the last session, it took them about 12 seconds to identify: ‘This is the thing we ought to get rid of and this is what it really ought to be like.'”

In the afternoon, new gender-specific groups were formed. The athletes tried to identify what one problem should be corrected to make interscholastic sports better and what aspect is worth maintaining. Practices recommended for trashing were bad attitudes, lack of respect, parental politics, favoring players, inconsistent treatment and unfair expectations, negative parental and community comments, summer programs, emphasis on winning at all costs and inappropriate fan behavior.

“We had two,” said Frechette of his group. “One was the coaches negativity towards players, and how they have to tell them but in a positive way, not a negative way. The other was to allow fans to voice their opinion and support their teams and maybe give a little razzing to the other teams but at the same time to keep it clean.”

Practices worth keeping included captains that lead by example, parental education, positive atmosphere, quality coaching education, coaching honesty and consistency, maintaining a positive learning experience, keeping a fun perspective, coaches that are willing to learn from athletes, coaches that teach lessons and life skills, better communication and behavior by all parties and scenarios where everyone has a role and responsibility in building a better team.”

It was clear that the practices that promoted team unity and a fun environment were what the athletes wanted most.

“It’s really important to do team bonding,” said Ross. “We have spaghetti dinners all the time. Before we went to Augusta (in basketball) we watched the movie ‘Miracle’. The whole team went. We try to do different things to get us ready. I don’t necessarily think that the coaches can do it all. They can teach us how to play the game, but the kids are there to have fun, and they have to help provide that atmosphere.”

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