Lyons-Main-61515.jpg
Lyons: Winning in the Game of Life
April 04, 2016 11:52 AM | General
An op-ed column from WVU Director of Athletics Shane Lyons published recently in the Charleston Gazette-Mail on the state of collegiate athletics:
Shane Lyons
With the completion of another exciting March Madness, the frenzy around winning conference and national championships is intense for many Division I programs and their fans.
And, no doubt, the young men and women who play in these games have devoted countless hours to practice sessions, studying film and developing strategies, strength and conditioning training and team-building to get to this point.
They deserve to live out their dreams.
They deserve our support.
Yet, our student-athletes also deserve our full support to be just as productive off the court in preparation for winning in the game of life.
And we, as athletic administrators, must see to it that our sports programs are just as devoted to our students’ academic success and personal development as we are to producing winning teams.
We must re-think our approach. Reach for a higher peak -- and then not stop.
At West Virginia University, our student-athlete graduation rate stands at 82 percent. That’s pretty good, but we can do better. We must do better.
It starts at the top, and takes the commitment of all our coaches, their staffs and the students themselves.
At WVU, we are focusing on initiatives to supplement the traditional methods of mandatory study halls, academic counselors and tutors.
Those are essential, but we also must re-enforce the notion that just getting your degree and graduating isn’t enough. There needs to be a purpose in that education.
So, we are bringing back former WVU athletes who have gone on to successful careers in professions other than sports to talk to our student-athletes about what it takes to be disciplined in the real world – whether it be law, or medicine, or business or education.
Like many other schools, we have the student athlete degree completion program to support former student-athletes who left school early to turn pro and want to come back and complete their degree. Our younger student-athletes look to these men and women as role models for reaching their athletic dreams -- and then returning and finishing what they started.
We host career fairs so that our student-athletes can talk to future employers about their areas of interest, prepare cover letters and resumes, dress for success and, in general, receive some real-life experience with the job-seeking process.
We help many of our student-athletes obtain meaningful internships in their fields during the summer months when they have more down time, leading many to full-time employment after graduation. Employers often tell us that because our student-athletes are so disciplined in and out of the classroom, combined with good leadership and time management skills, they make well-rounded employees.
We are offering common sense services to prepare athletes for life after sports. Currently, most student-athletes follow a regimented schedule that is prescribed for them -- class time, study halls, practice time, training, meals and game day scenarios. But soon, they will be on their own developing their own schedules, preparing their own meals, creating and living within a budget and planning their own social and work calendars. We are helping them do that so that life after college sports is balanced and meaningful.
And don’t count out how important community service is to the overall student-athlete experience. From reading to area school children and visiting and getting to know ill patients to volunteering to feed the hungry and help build homes for the underprivileged, our student-athletes are learning that what they receive in their hearts and minds is much more than what they put into it. And we want that feeling and that commitment to last a lifetime.
Finally, I like to take time to sit down with our student-athletes and talk to them about their challenges and their issues, getting to know them personally so that I am not considered to be on an “island” beyond their reach.
It is a philosophy that our president, Gordon Gee, embraces. They see us at their practices, their games, their team meetings and team functions -- not just after big wins.
I truly believe our young men and women may get their start in adult life in Morgantown, but it is my job – our jobs as athletic administrators and coaches – to help them be productive in the next chapter of their lives.
If we can continue to transform our approach to supporting the student-athlete off the court, then we can transform the lives of many generations of student-athletes to come.
(Shane Lyons is Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Associate Vice President at West Virginia University.)
Steve Sabins | April 14
Tuesday, April 14
Mic'd Up at Pete Dye
Tuesday, April 14
Jaden Bray | April 13
Tuesday, April 14
Coach Travis Trickett | April 13
Tuesday, April 14
