Welcome to the start of the 2011 – 2012 School Year.  The Emerald City League along with our league schools, are looking forward to a great year of competition!  The Emerald City League prides itself on competing on the field but also in the classroom.  The 2010-11 school year was no exception.  Multiple state championships were won in athletic competition, but also academic championships.  All our league schools are looking to make this their best year to date. Are you ready to make it the best for your school for your student /athlete? Have you thought about your role and how that plays out?

Here are some suggestions from one Athletic Director who has had many conversations with other Athletic Directors to make this the best year for your student /athlete:

1.  Understand your role.  Before the season starts you need to pick your role.  For most of you it will be the role of parent/fan.  It will not be one of coach, official, or player.  It does not work to try and play more than one role.  Pick one and do it well.  Knowing this going into a season will be helpful to all.
2. Cheer on the whole team.  Too often it is easy to only watch your son or daughter.  Make it a point to get to know the names of the entire team and their parents.  Cheer on everyone!  This is what makes a great atmosphere.  Having a group of parents that supports the entire team means everyone wins.
3. Lay off the refs.  In almost every sport there are officials of some kind.  Our schools need them to participate.  Let them do their jobs and you focus on being a fan.  I have never seen a fan yell at an official and the official then changes their call.  Officials have a thankless job; let’s cut them some slack.  If you feel you can do a better job, give it a try.  I know that all official associations are looking for good people.
4. After the game, be there for your kids.  Sometimes the best thing is to just be there. Maybe for a hug, a smile, a word of encouragement, or just to listen.  The car ride home should not be telling them about all the opportunities missed, or how they should have done something differently, or how they should have played more, or how the coach lost the game for the team, etc.   Just be there for your child!
5. Enjoy the journey!  Too much of each season is measured in wins and losses.  How was the journey?  Remember the practices, team meals, bus rides, and all of the other stuff that makes up the entire season.  Enjoy the ride!  Enjoy the journey, not just the highs of wins and the lows of the defeats.

These are a few ideas to make the 2011-12 school year a great year.  If you are intentional and think about how and what you want to do before the season begins, you might be surprised how the season, and the year, turn out.

I’ve been involved in competitive sports since third grade. I started out playing basketball, tennis and softball at a local recreation center. In high school, I played volleyball and co-ed tennis, and after the Title IX legislation proclaiming girls were to have equal opportunities in sports, I was able to play on the high school basketball team. In college, I played basketball, volleyball and tennis, and during summer months softball at the national level.

During my early years in sports, my coaches and parents told me I was learning skills I would be able to use throughout my entire life. Later, as an athletic director, I taught young athletes the very same skills and life lessons that had been instilled in me. While I experienced many scrapes and bruises as a young athlete, little did I know how desperately I would need those valuable lessons later in life.

My world came tumbling down around me on June 14, 2009. After some earlier testing, that morning the phone rang and the voice on the other end said, “I am very sorry to tell you this, but you have breast cancer.” I was absolutely devastated. I could hardly breathe. How could this be happening to me? I am a strong woman and lead a very active life. Though retired from competitive sports, I was still in pretty good shape. Nothing like this was supposed to happen to me!

On July 24, 2009 I had a double mastectomy followed by five months chemotherapy and then radiation. My treatment finally ended March 31, 2010. I had some very dark moments during those ten months and it became very clear that I was in the biggest competition of my life. At some point it dawned on me that I really did have the life skills I needed to beat this horrible disease. Just like every season I played sports, I was surrounded by an excellent team, only this time they were doctors, friends and family.

Because I hate to lose, there was no doubt I was going to beat this. My surgeon told me from the beginning that she knew I was going to fight hard and everything was going to be okay. My oncologist told me that I was very strong and everything was going to be okay. My radiologist told me I would really have to take care of my skin, but everything was going to be okay. They were my coaches.

Those days were long and some were very painful, as they are for so many. Like my days playing sports, I tried to listen carefully to my coaches and worked as hard as I could. After every disappointment, I picked myself back up and got back in the game. I knew I had to get out of bed every day and face it all. I needed to go into this competition each day with the most positive attitude I could muster.

My family, friends and colleagues who have always been supportive of me, became even more important than before. I needed to learn to ask for help because I couldn’t do everything by myself. In fact, I was not able to most things by myself. I am very fortunate to have a partner who became my caretaker 24/7. I slept when I was supposed to sleep, took pills when I was supposed to take them, got some form of exercise every day, and little by little I got better.

Today I am cancer free. I have most of my strength back and am thankful that my “chemo brain fog” continues to diminish. I continue to get used to my new body. On my bathroom mirror I wrote, “You are a beautiful, useful and brilliant woman.” I still need that coaching every day, but I am healthy and proud that I kicked cancer’s butt.

An unexpected blessing from my cancer experience has been the opportunity to talk with young women, colleagues and friends about breast cancer. I feel this is probably one of the most important lessons I bring to my teaching today. Since my treatment, two of my friends have been diagnosed with breast cancer. I have been able to be there for them as so many people have been there for me.

Now when I tell young athletes about the life skills learned through sports, I not only believe it, I understand it in a profound new way. Nothing that I went through in the past year was easy, yet I remain convinced that the attitude, discipline, competition and leadership skills I learned in sports helped save my life.

It was spring 2004 when I was at an early-season practice for Seattle Sockeye, an Ultimate Frisbee club team. I had played with Sockeye for seven seasons, and over the years we had gone from very good to mediocre to back on the rise again. This year's team had a number of new up-and-coming players joining the veterans. We were doing a cutting drill, and maybe we were still getting loose, but at this point many of the throws were not finding the mark and too many discs were being dropped. "Stop sucking!" yelled one of our returning players, somewhat seriously, somewhat sarcastically. To this, a new player named Chase spoke up: "Hold on. We aren't performing as we should right now, but let's not go negative. Let's refocus, and let's pick each other up when we make mistakes."

My ears pricked up and I watched for the team's reaction. Chase's statement was a departure from our previous team culture. The new guy was questioning the attitude of a veteran. Would this stand? In a matter of seconds heads were nodding and it was clear:  Things were going to change. Though we had been a good team, extremely good at times (World Champions in 1997), we had some big and unstable egos on the team. If we didn't play well solidarity could unravel. Guys would grumble then outright yell at each other. On occasion a sullen teammate would abruptly grab his bag mid-way through practice and leave in a huff. A couple of times teammates even exchanged blows. Off the field we got along well and many on the team were close friends, but on the field we were intense, accustomed to winning, impatient with anything less.

Chase may have been new, but he was a rising star among Ultimate players (and the next year, in 2005, he would be selected to play for Team USA and go on to win a gold medal at the World Games). He emanated competence, hard work, and a team-first rather than me-first approach. He had the rare ability to be liked by opponents even as he was dominating them. He bantered in an easy-going way with opponents during a lull in the game and would even offer a congratulatory high-five when others had bested him on a play. He, and a number of up-and-coming players like him, played all-out but with an air of respect for opponents, fair play, and the basic joy of playing the game. To some it may sound corny, but these young guys embodied a code of honor and a refreshing perspective in the wake of the testosterone-driven, belligerent, win-at-all-costs behavior seen too often in sports. So Chase's words about staying positive with each other resonated. Even the guys most inclined to behaving badly intuitively knew their behavior was counter-productive and selfish, but for some reason it had been seen as “okay” before.

Long story short, as that year's team set a new standard, Sockeye won its first National Championship and went on to win it three times in four years. Much of the championship success was due to the team's array of dominant athletes, but the supportive, got-your-back team culture was an integral element in the winning ways of the team.

No matter what the sport, a positive team culture not only leads to more W's, it simply makes the game more fun to play. Talk with athletes and former-athletes. Their favorite teams were the ones with capable players who "got on the same page," supported each other through thick and thin, and played with accountability to their teammates. The best teams have players who want to give their best for the sake of each other. They work hard to preserve what makes the team special. To them, working hard together is fun.

As I watch teams in our league compete, I keep an eye out for teams creating a dynamic where teammates just can't wait to get on the field with each other. These are the teams to watch - they have something very good brewing.

A brief footnote:  Chase is a graduate of one of the schools in our league, a number of amazing Ultimate players like him have come from several other Emerald City League schools, and even more are rising up through our league’s ranks right now. These players wonderfully represent the positive values we hope athletic participation is encouraging among student-athletes.

Welcome to another school year!   Hundreds of student athletes from our nine schools have been eagerly waiting for the beginning of fall sports.  The Emerald City League begins its 10^th season of competition in the Sea King District 2 – 1A classification.  Like all organizations, we have had to deal with change and growth and adapt accordingly.

We are nine schools each with a unique mission and culture.  What has remained constant over the last ten years is our commitment to sportsmanship, integrity and healthy competition.  We are a community of champions. During the last school year, the Emerald City League had the following state finishes: 1-2-3 in Girls Soccer, 2^nd in Boys Soccer, 5^th in Girls Cross Country (with the individual overall champion), 5^th in Volleyball, 4^th in Boys Basketball, 5^th in Boys Golf, 2^nd in Boys tennis, 1^st in Girls Tennis, 3^rd and 4^th in Girls Golf, and 1^st and 2^nd in Girls Track & Field.   Our students succeed in the classroom as well, and in the last two academic years our schools were awarded the Academic State Championship in Girls Basketball, Softball, Boys Soccer, Boys Golf and Boys Cross Country.   Several schools had team GPA’s within the top five too! 

As much as I enjoy cheering on the Pumas, it is fun to go to meets, games and matches to watch the other schools. When one school does well, we all celebrate the victory in the Emerald City League!  We are a community of champions on the field and in the classroom, and will continue to make athletics a meaningful experience for all our athletes.

Good luck to all the student athletes and coaches this season! 

Rebecca Moe 

Director of Athletics 

University Prep 

206-832-1124 

rmoe@universityprep.org