Summer Leadership Academy
2013 Dates: Saturday, July 20 - Sunday, July 28
St. Andrew's School (DE)
Now in our 16th year, the Summer Leadership Academy is the nation's premier leadership training ground for high school athletes. We work with varsity girls and boys soccer, girls and boys basketball and girls lacrosse.
TIME
Our 9 intense days in a residential setting create a transformational leadership and athletic experience. Sports programs of this length do not exist elsewhere for high school student-athletes.
SIZE/ATTENTION
We are, deliberately, VERY small. Each sports program accepts 28 student-athletes from around the country. The program works with 6 coaches making for an unparalleled level of individual attention. Each leadership and sports psychology classroom is run by two teachers—each with an average of 16 athletes.
THE MENTORS
100% of our staff are former or current college athletes and team captains. More importantly, all staff are current or aspiring educators—many with advanced degrees. Almost every staff member has worked with us for multiple summers, and more than one-third of our staff are Academy alumni. Finally, like no other staff in the country, our coaches are trained for four days before our athletes arrive. Staff are trained in the SportsChallenge curriculum and expert educators provide the staff with leadership development, advanced coaching techniques and practice teaching sessions.
RESEARCH-BASED LEADERSHIP CURRICULUM
We possess a 300-page research-based leadership and sports psychology curriculum that serves as the basis for the athletes' two daily classes. No other program can make such a claim.
THE STUDENT-ATHLETES
While many programs can boast that they have participants from all over the U.S., few can state that the majority of their student-athletes are on financial aid or scholarship. For nine days, athletes room with individuals with different backgrounds from themselves; athletes from rural Indiana room with athletes from New York City; basketball players from main-line Philly room with soccer players from Haiti. This consciously created and unique diversity allows for our athletes to develop an essential 21st Century skill—the ability to truly connect with and relate to others very different from yourself.
BY THE NUMBERS
- 42 schools and youth-serving non-profits have partnered with SportsChallenge.
- Our curriculum includes 11 research-based classes in leadership development and sports psychology.
- We offer 5 college counseling seminars to student-athletes.
- Our program boasts an unparalleled 4:1 student-athlete to coach ratio.
- We offer over 30 skill-specific sports electives in each program for student-athletes to choose from.
- 100% of our staff played or are currently playing collegiate athletics.
- 100% of our staff captained their high school and/or their college teams.
- Our 2013 staff will include more than 12 SportsChallenge alumni—almost 35% of our staff.
- 12 members of our coaching staff have played professionally.
- Student-athletes participate in over 80 hours of sport and leadership training over the course of the 9 days.
