History

Formed in 1996, SportsChallenge began as a team of career educators with a vision of using sports to develop our next generation of leaders. They brought together experts to create an unparalleled, comprehensive, research-based leadership curriculum designed for the high school athlete. This curriculum became the cornerstone for the 1997 launching of the Summer Leadership Academy where a motivated group of student-athletes were brought together from all backgrounds and all parts of the country. In 2013, SportsChallenge will proudly host our 16th residential Summer Leadership Academy.

In 1999, SC began to offer leadership workshops for high school and college students including captain's clinics, team leadership workshops, and leadership training for high school and college dorm proctors. All told, SportsChallenge has directly impacted more than 3,500 high school and college students from over 25 states and seven countries.

In November of 2006, SportsChallenge Leadership Academy became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization overseen by a national Board of Directors and supported by an Alumni Council and Advisory Board. They have since developed the National Coaches Institute, a four-day program that provides coaches with the latest research and best practices around team culture creation and sports leadership. With a quarterly newsletter, The Leader, and an internationally followed leadership blog and Twitter feed, SportsChallenge has firmly established itself as an expert leadership and sports nonprofit making an enormous impact.