Connecting with at-Risk Youth through Sport Participation: Strategies from Rural Coaches in Georgia

Format

Poster Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southern University

Second Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southern University

Third Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southern University

Fourth Presenter's Institution

Georgia Southern University

Fifth Presenter's Institution

NA

Location

Harborside East & West

Strand #1

Social & Emotional Skills

Strand #2

Family & Community

Relevance

The current presentation will address three strands: Heart, Hands, and Home. Sport participation can, if proper leadership is present and relationships are cultivated, can impact the social and emotional development of young people, can aid in character development and behavior management strategies, and foster adult-youth relationships that create lifetime mentorships.

Brief Program Description

Sport is often used as a mechanism to develop character, teach life lessons, and cultivate social and emotional skills. The researchers surveyed sport coaches in rural areas of Georgia and results will highlight to what extent, the challenges, and the strategies coaches use to connect with At-Risk Youth.

Summary

Sport is often characterized as a setting in which young people, at-risk youth in particular, are supposed to learn skills that will serve them later in life. Hard work, perseverance, teamwork, positive attitude, self confidence, and effective communication are just a few of many of those life lessons sport participation may elicit. The problem is these lessons do not arbitrarily happen (Gearity & Murray, 2011).

Conquest coaching (styles portrayed in works such as Last Chance U, and Coaching Bad) depicts the coaches as a dictator that are only concerned with winning. They ignore the development of the student-athlete and as a result, negative outcomes such as unethical, decreased motivation, and decreased self-confidence emerge. The positive aspects of sport participation (that most think happen simply by participating) must be taught by coaches that understand the role sport can play in the development- socially, emotionally, and physically- of young people (Hodge and Lonsdale, 2011; Bailey et al. 2013; Kavussanu and Ntoumanis, 2003). Therefore, the Holistic, Athlete-Centered coaching philosophy will provide the framework for the current discussion.

With the concept that sport participation combined with deliberate coaching strategies leads to greater benefits of participation, the researchers surveyed coaches in Georgia to identify strategies and best practices for connecting with At-Risk student-athletes. The researchers will discuss appropriate plans as well as the challenges that coaches face when trying to grow physically, socially, and emotionally productive youth.

Evidence

Emperical evidence is located in the summary as justification of the current proposal.

Biographical Sketch

Trey Burdette is an Associate Professor of Coaching Education in the School of Health and Kinesiology at Georgia Southern University. He earned his Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from Georgia Southern University, His primary teaching responsibilities are in Coaching Education, undergraduate and graduate, and his research interests are in sport performance and sport leadership. He has instructed at both national and international coaching clinics.

C.H. "Hal" Wilson, Jr. is an Assistant Professor of Coaching Education in the School of Health and Kinesiology at Georgia Southern University. He earned his Ph.D. in Kinesiology and Sport Studies from the University of Tennessee, studying influences on coaching leadership. He has nineteen years of coaching experience at the youth, high school, and college levels, including both male and female teams at public and private institutions throughout the southeastern United States.

Christina M. Gipson is an Assistant Professor of Sport Management n the School of Health and Kinesiology at Georgia Southern University. She earned her PhD at Brunel University in London, England in Sport Management and Sport Sociology. She completed her M.S. in Sport Administration from Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA and her B.S. at Methodist University in Fayetteville, NC in Sport Management and Athletic Training. Her primary responsibilities are teaching Sport Management, undergraduate and graduate, and research interests include, youth at-risk, CrossFit, gender issues in sport, and volunteerism.

Drew Zwald is the Director of Coaching Education and Professor in the School of Health and Kinesiology at Georgia Southern University. He is the Past President of the National Council for Accreditation of Coaching Education. His teaching and research focuses on administration, pedagogy and coaching education. He has published articles, book chapters and manuals, awarded grants and presented over 100 research papers at international, national, regional or state conferences. Under his direction the Georgia Southern University Coaching Education Program was recognized by the National Council for Accreditation of Coaching Education as the second college or university in the United States to offer an accredited coaching education program. He coached various sports for thirteen years at the interscholastic and collegiate levels.

Keyword Descriptors

Sport, Coaching, Character, Life skills, Relationships, Behavior management

Presentation Year

2017

Start Date

3-7-2017 4:00 PM

End Date

3-7-2017 5:30 PM

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Connecting with at-Risk Youth through Sport Participation: Strategies from Rural Coaches in Georgia

Harborside East & West

Sport is often used as a mechanism to develop character, teach life lessons, and cultivate social and emotional skills. The researchers surveyed sport coaches in rural areas of Georgia and results will highlight to what extent, the challenges, and the strategies coaches use to connect with At-Risk Youth.