Life of an Athlete

To quote John Underwood from the American Athletic Institute and the creator of the Life of an Athlete program, "When you stop and think about the purpose of activities for youth, it is important to be reminded that the objective goes far beyond winning, championships, season records and the scoreboard." 

What is Life of an Athlete (LOA)? It is a comprehensive prevention/intervention program; a systemic community approach to (1) reducing risk and (2) increasing protective factors in student athletes while (3) setting clear consistent boundaries for behavior, (4) increasing consequence beliefs, (5) teaching appropriate athlete lifestyle and (6) establishing a process to identify and help those involved in drug/alcohol use or behaviors of concern.

Why do we target athletes? With 60 to 90 percent of students involved in at least one sport per school year it makes athletes the largest target population in the school. Athletes also tend to be an influential group among their peers so creating a positive behavioral culture among athletes will impact behavioral decisions in all segments of the school and community.

The program is laid out in a 5-phase process involving all stakeholders: Administration, Coaches, Student Team Leaders, Athletes, Parents and Community. The program provides valuable prevention data and strategies. 

John Underwood has spent many years studying the effects of social drug/alcohol use on high level mental and physical performance. Nearly 14,000 tests over 20 years. These tests shows the impact of drug and alcohol use on the central nervous system, brain function, reaction time, maximum peek performance, training, sleep, recovery, and more with detailed brain scan images and precise performance measurements.

At an Olympic athlete level (these numbers increase dramatically for high school level athletes) one night of binge drinking wipes out 14 days of training, reflexes slow by 38 percent, explosive power by 11 percent, agility 8 percent, endurance 8 percent, acceleration 6 percent, HGH (human growth hormone) needed for muscle strength 70 percent, injury rates are 2x higher and you are more likely to get sick as your immune system is sharply reduced, lung capacity decrease and your ability for REM sleep needed for recovery is reduced to zero, just to name a few ramifications.

Sharing these explicit facts and statistics are very compelling and frankly, plays largely on the athletes' drive to be number one, while educating parents and the community about the concerns their children face during their high risk teen years. Today's athletes have far greater opportunities than ever before in history; however, our problems have never been greater.

If you have a new student athlete at Brookfield East High School then you most likely have already had a taste of the LOA program at the mandatory parent meeting in August. BEHS's Athletic Director, Corey Golla, had attended a LOA training and saw the benefits to not only our athletic program but to our kids. With the support of Drug Free Communities of Waukesha County, three coaches from BEHS attended a training at Lambeau Field and about 20 student team leaders attended a training in Madison. I am excited that BEHS has offered to pilot this program. This a great step in changing the risk behavior culture among our youth.

If you would like to attend a LOA training, we are very fortunate that Alliance for Wisconsin Youth (AWY) has offered to host a training in our area. AWY will cover all expenses so that this valuable program can be offered at NO cost to participants. The training will be held September 19, 2011 from 9am - 3pm at West Allis/West Milwaukee School Administration Building (1205 S. 70th Street, Rm 710)

RSVP Coalition@wawm.k12.wi.us or call Tammy Molter at 414-604-3506 for more information. (pdf of flier attached) If you are an athletic director, coach, student athlete leader, parent, AODA coordinator, health teacher, school board member or superintendent, you don't want to miss this opportunity. RSVP early as there are only 150 seats available. For more information about John Underwood's program, Life of an Athlete, you can go to http://www.americanathleticinstitute.org/

Help to positively change the drug and alcohol culture of our youth by staying informed, getting involved or supporting programs and organizations that make a commitment to our youth.

Sandra

"Make a difference, do something positive today"