Number of Participants: 6
Hours Donated: 22
Value of Time Served: $1,115
Event Type: Children & Youth
Sport: Schools
School: Red Hook Senior High School
Date: March 31, 2022
Location:
Red Hook High School
West Market Street, Red Hook
NY
About:
The IB Sports Science program is – This is a college level course that is offered at Red Hook High School and is called International Baccalaureate Sports Exercise and Health Science. If is an upper level course for students interested in going into fields such as physical therapy, athletic training, sports medicine, physical education teaching, coaching, nutrition or any other health related field. One of the core topic areas the students study is Skill in Sports and there is a lot of content about how athletes progress through stages of learning, what are best practices in teaching and coaching athletes. Part of the culture we incorporate in this class is to find ways to do service learning and give back to the school or community. This is the first year the students have decided as a group to volunteer coach for the St.Christophers/St. Sylvia’s CYO basketball program. There is always a need for coaches and especially in the older divisions. Each one of the students in the IB Sports Science class grew up in Red Hook and all went through the CYO program as young students. Now as seniors, they were eager to coach the young students and share what they know and have learned in our class lessons and in the many years they have participated in school sports.
The students began meeting about the CYO program, involved in the drafting of the teams and the coaches meetings and then had to get trained in CPR and first aid which we covered in our class time and then they had to do some Safe Environment Training in order to coach youth sports in the CYO program that they completed on their own time. Students began coaching practices and games in the last week of January and continued every week coaching their teams one hour for practice and one hour for a game each week. Time was spent communicating with parents and other peers to discuss practice plans as well. Three students coach one 5/6 boys team and three students coach another 5/6 boys team. It was quite fun seeing them coach against each other for a couple of the games! They have each spent between 22-30 hours each between planning, practicing, coaching, and they have a commitment to help referee other games each week too. Between the 6 students they have logged about 130 hours so far and the championship playoffs are this Friday and championship game and awards ceremony is this Saturday, April 2nd.
They all wanted to give back to a program that they enjoyed when they were younger. Many of them remember seeing older high school students coach and they really looked up to them when they were younger and they wanted to give back to the community. A couple of the high school students are on the basketball team (boys varsity), and all of them are athletes either on team sports or participate in fitness training at our local gym.
I am so incredibly proud of these students, they have given so much to others in such an unselfish way. We had a great parent email last week that really was wonderful to receive, their son is one of the teams and stated the following:
“Mrs. Murray,
I just have to tell you how refreshing it is to have your students coaching this basketball team. They are doing an amazing job. They are always engaged with the kids, teaching, inspiring… they have been amazing examples of how to treat each other and encourage each other. The way the 3 of them work together as a well oiled coaching staff is admirable. Many many adults could learn a thing or two from them. I hope that in the future they continue to coach or at least continue to inspire and be positive influences on kids!
Kate DiCarlo”