Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 12 No. 2 | October 2019
12 Inside Hokie Sports Most student-athletes possess a Type A personality, and certainly Virginia Tech softball player Maddi Banks falls into that category. Put her on first base in the bottom of the seventh inning of a tie game, and she’s stealing second—and then coming home on any single to the outfield. But on a recent trip to Colorado with a group of Tech student- athletes, Banks found herself at the bottom of a United States Air Force Academy ropes course that presented an array of vertical challenges. Looking upward at the time, her competitive nature, extroverted attitude, and confident disposition all waned a little bit. “I have a little fear of heights,” she admitted. “That was pretty scary.” That was one of several activities arranged by the Virginia Tech Athletics Leadership Institute staff during a six-day leadership retreat that took place in Colorado Springs, Colorado in mid-August. Ten student-athletes from seven different teams took part in the retreat, which was planned and overseen by Leadership Institute staff members Danny White (senior associate AD), Dr. Gary Bennett (associate AD for sport psychology), and Shelby Miller (senior director of student-athlete development). The initiative marked a new one for the Leadership Institute. For the past seven years, the staff led small groups to places such as the Dominican Republic, Switzerland and Rwanda as part of a “Sport, Policy and Society” study abroad course that explored different sectors of international development and how sports can support such development. White served as the primary instructor of that course, with Dr. Bennett and Miller in supporting roles. This year, the staff decided on a domestic initiative, seeing value in taking student-athletes to the Air Force Academy and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center for discussions with some of the best leadership that this nation offers. “The goal of the program was to provide a unique leadership experience for student-athletes to travel and learn from the ‘best of the best’ in the U.S.,” Miller agreed. “While we’ve coordinated an abroad experience for several years, we saw this as an opportunity to expose student-athletes to leadership concepts in an experiential way away from campus. Our hope is that the 10 student-athletes have returned to campus with the leadership training and a new motivation to positively impact their teams at Virginia Tech.” The 10 student-athletes in the group included Banks, Jaelyn Demory (men’s track and field), Nika Kozar (women’s tennis), Ryan Metz (baseball), Slade Pickering (men’s golf), Rachel Pocratsky (women’s track and field), Kayla Purcell (women’s swimming and diving), Isaiah Rogers (men’s track and field), Molly Sheffield (women’s swimming and diving) and Joelle Vereb (women’s swimming and diving). They left Thursday, Aug. 15, and the next day, found themselves on the Air Force Academy’s ropes course. Staff members of the Academy’s Center for Character and Leadership Development coordinated several activities, creating an environment where student-athletes “own, engage and practice the habits of honor, thoughts and actions in line with the identity of a leader of character.” Most people view education through the prism of books, slides and dry erase boards. But these 10 student-athletes were tested in ways that not only brought them out of their comfort zones, but also forced them to trust each other and to find solutions together. “You had to trust the people holding the rope,” Banks said. “And maybe some people weren’t scared of heights. Rachel [Pocratsky], she came on the trip and she did it five times, but for people who didn’t, you had to trust the people who were guiding you and encouraging you. Something that you think is small can mean so much to someone else.” Small group of TECH student-athletes takes part in leadership retreat Ten Hokie student-athletes from seven different sports traveled to Colorado Springs in mid-August to learn from the best of the best by Jimmy Robertson
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