By Staff
As many citizens of Dowagiac are aware, Dowagiac Union High School athletic teams have made the transition into the Wolverine Conference this year.
This transition has been two years in the making and prior planning made the transition relatively smooth.
Many of the fall and winter sports teams have had success in the new conference and all of them are learning about facing new opponents.
One of the focus points of the new league has been leadership and sportsmanship from each of the 10 league schools.
Recently, 10 student athletes from Dowagiac Union High School were able to attend the Wolverine Conference Student Leadership Workshop held in Vicksburg and hosted by Vicksburg High School.
The workshop was an interactive workshop led by Craig Hillier of Winning Edge Seminars.
Craig is a dynamic youth speaker and he does a tremendous job of relating to the student athletes in a way that makes them feel at ease while getting his message across to them.
Hillier's most recent book, Winning Beyond the Scoreboard, was the focus of the day in which the student athletes learned about blending individual roles into team goals and how to become a more effective leader.
Much of the time during the morning session was spent focusing on each athlete's ability to respond as a "victor" or a "victim."
A victor is someone who learns and grows from mistakes that are made and a victim is someone who responds to mistakes by feeling ashamed, placing blame on others, freaking out, denying or quitting and giving up.
The students did several interactive exercises to demonstrate these topics.
In the afternoon session, the focus shifted to learning how to understand the personality traits of each of the student athletes so that they were able to better understand their strengths and weaknesses as a leader.
Each athlete completed a self profile to help define what type of leader they are.
With the results of each profile, the athletes are now able to distinguish different personality traits that make up the dynamics of a team and it will help them be able to more effectively communicate with teammates who may not share the same personality traits.
Overall, the day was a great time of learning how to understand a student athlete's role as a leader in their school and on their teams. Mr. Hillier's sense of humor and workshop style made this a very effective workshop for the student athletes representing Dowagiac.