Student-Athletes Grow at Leadership Conference

A cohort of Upper School student-athletes recently joined more than 500 peers from throughout the state and athletics-related professionals as part of this year’s IHSA Student Leadership Conference.

Hosted every other year by the Student Advisory Committee of the Illinois High School Association, this event provides a regular time for student-athletes from across Illinois to come together and share their experiences while learning from each other and contributing to conversations that affect student-athletes locally and nationally.   

Those in attendance saw a presentation by motivational speakers Matt and Phil and learned more about positive youth development through athletics from Dr. Scott Pierce before participating in breakout sessions focusing on leadership, time management and social media.

Sophomore Graysen Pendry thought the conference was very informative. As to the information, tool or skill she took away that she plans to use, she immediately offered, “I think training off season is incredibly important if you want to be serious about your sport. And I want to implement the time management system that they talked about.”

Freshman Miriam Johnson appreciated that the motivational speakers encouraged student-athletes “to embrace the awkward and be more confident in everyday situations that we will experience as students and athletes and in particular when we are in leadership roles.”

Freshman B Hirsch’s three key takeaways from the conference were: 1. Time management is key to being not only a successful student, but also a successful athlete. 2. Confidence comes from embracing the things that happen to you and brushing the not-so-great things/occurrences away. 3. Being a leader is not only being a captain or taking control. It is using your confidence and communication to lead your team/peers by example.

At the conference, sophomore Dal Harrell learned, “Being a leader doesn’t mean being a captain but showing empathy to your teammates and knowing what they may need in stressful moments.”

Senior Benjamin Kagan, who is in his second year representing District 1 as an IHSA SAC member, said, “I learned the valuable skill of putting together many small pieces to create a successful conference. This conference allowed me the opportunity to improve my collaboration skills, as working with a team all across the state presented many challenges.”

Congrats to these students and all the student-athletes who came together to make this annual gathering a success!