In movies athletes are portrayed as mean and bossy, you always see them shoving other kids into lockers. FHC tries to resolve the issue by not only looking at the skills of the players but also their attitude. We have a strict policy when it comes towards culture but especially in our sports teams.
At the end of each sports season, every team or club loses a sense of leadership with all the upperclassmen who have to leave. At the end of every year, coaches have to adapt their leadership positions and look at new C-Team captains. But if leadership changes, why does culture need to?
At FHC, the baseball team’s motto has been “Culture over Everything.” Baseball coach Nick Beckmann strives his team off of the team’s culture. The community aspect is a big part of being on a team; no one wants to be in a toxic environment when it’s meant to be positive.
“In a team sport, if you don’t have a good culture, there’s a lot of things that can go wrong, even with the people: they can start infighting. They almost aren’t playing for each other. It’s like you’re competing against your own teammates all the time, and you don’t see the team’s success,” Beckmann said.
With all the sports seasons being pretty limited to a three-month timeframe, coaches want to make the season memorable, starting with a strong community. With teams being relatively large due to the large number of athletes and band members, coaches and sponsors can get overwhelmed, so when students can help out their team, it really benefits the entire team. Head football coach Malach Radigan tries hard to keep his team in line.
“There are all the stereotypes for jocks, they are mean and tough and belittle people and we try our best to transcend that,” Radigan said.
It’s pivotal for culture to minimize the stigma associated with players so they can connect better on the team. If the players connect better the team will play better.
“A big piece for us is serving leadership, it is pivotal for our culture,” said Radigan.
Another big team that has to face loss of leadership is Spartan Regiment, our marching band. Director of the band, Nathan Griffin, has to hand pick section leaders each year along with drum majors, which means he needs to pay attention to students mindsets.
“[Culture] is vital and it starts with the thing we always talk about is leadership, the start is communication, how we disseminate information and get it to everyone. On top of it, asking students to step up and do leadership things like running sectionals or working on rehearsals and making sure students have what they need. Which is super important for a huge program,” Griffin said.
