Bucknell University Athletics
Sam Rickels, Victoria Kielty Check In from NCAA Leadership Forum
11/9/2013 1:58:00 AM | Women's Lacrosse
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Bucknell rower Victoria Kielty, women's lacrosse midfielder Sam Rickels and women's lacrosse head coach Randall Goldsborough are among more than 350 student-athletes and 125 athletics professionals attending the annual NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum this week in Providence, R.I. Kielty and Rickels check in with their experiences from Friday's events.
On Nov. 7 at 7:15 in the morning, Randall Goldsborough, Vicky Kielty and I left Bucknell to attend the NCAA Leadership Forum in Providence. The three of us took a plane full of very entertaining people from Harrisburg to Philadelphia, then took another flight full of athletes from Philadelphia to Providence. After an hour long, bumpy plane ride with Coach Randall praying for our safety, we finally reached the Leadership Forum at the Omni Hotel to begin our busy weekend.
After being fed our first delicious meal, we were broken up into different color teams, which we are in for our small group sessions, mine being the Pink Team. Thursday night was dedicated to getting to know each other in our color teams, and more importantly, getting to know ourselves as leaders.
We completed a DiSC assessment prior to the trip, and here, we received our results. I have completed the DiSC assessment before while at Bucknell, and was given the leadership style as Si, and with completing the assessment again, was once again an Si, giving this assessment validity in my mind. The rest of this session was dedicated to understanding our own DiSC style, and learning how to understand and work with others who may have the same, or polar opposite DiSC styles.
This was a really helpful session from a player's persepctive because my team is not made up of 35 identical people. Every person on my team is unique in their style of play, as well as the way they communicate and lead. This session gave me guidance and resources to be able to effectively communicate and work with people of a different styles. After a long night session, all 450 student-athletes were taken to Dave & Buster's for a night full of chicken fingers, soda and video games. I think I can speak for everyone at the Forum when I say there is no better way to let us bond than putting little kids in a candy store. This night was amazing because everyone got to interact and get to know each other on a personal level. We got to eat dinner together, watch sports and laugh as we all tried to play Dance Dance Revolution. Because of this trip, we formed bonds and memories with so many student-athletes, and also allowed us to feel more comfortable with each other during the break-out sessions.
Day 2 was a jam-packed day from 8 am to 9 pm. The morning began with breakfast and then breakout to our color teams. To get us excited, we started our session with a dance-off, where everyone realized that Dance Dance Revolution did the right thing by failing us at Dave & Buster's the night before. After we got out our laughs, and high quality moves, we dove right into getting to better understand ourselves as people, and as leaders. We all discussed the purpose of values, and the importance of them in our lives. We thought this talk was going to be simple and staightforward, but we were thrown a curveball when we had to discuss our fears and challenges. I was not expecting to have to confront my fears of leadership, but I feel like this session made me grow as a person as well as a leader.
Our color groups were then redirected to a ballroom where all the Division I athletes were put together to learn about NCAA Governance. This session was eye-opening because we got to learn all the nitty-gritty details about the NCAA that I had never considered before. Instead of a lecture-type presentation though, they turned the tables and made us, the students, become the NCAA Governance. We were each assigned a role on the Governance, as well as assigned an issue, and we had to create our own policy to which we would then present to the group. My table was presented the issue of Miscellaneous Expense for athletes. My position was The President of an Institution, so I was in the shoes of President Bravman for the first, and probably only time in my Bucknell career. This experience was fun, difficult, and extremely frustrating, showing me that the NCAA works so hard to make our experience as student-athletes the best it can possibly be.
After another delicious meal, we had guest speakers who talked to us about the importance of Global Leadership. The main take-away from this talk was that understanding myself is at the start of anything I do. If I don't know myself, how will I get to know anyone else? If I can't lead myself, how could I ever lead anything? The speakers really inspired me to really open up my own mind, and my own heart this weekend, to grow as an individual because growing as a leader will then come naturally.
We ended the night with a "Mystery" dinner. When they said "Mystery", we just thought it was going to be a surprise, but truly it was in fact a "Mystery" dinner, where we were a part of dinner theater. Our teams were composed of our tables who we were sitting with, and together, we had to solve the mystery of who killed Bobo the Clown. While eating yet again another delicious meal, our tables debated for two hours about who was the murderer, and why, to which my team was very wrong. Eventhough my team did not win, we were all well fed and we all had a blast. It was an amazing way to end the second day of the Forum, and has left me eager to see what tomorrow will bring.
Victoria Kielty:
On Nov. 7, Sam Rickels, Coach Randall Goldsborough and I boarded a small, rickety plane from Harrisburg Airport to Philadelphia. As the little tin foil tube rocked perilously to and fro on the runway, the propellors kicked to life and we were airborne before we could blink. Our layover was Philadelphia International; our final destination: Providence, Rhode Island and the NCAA Leadership Forum for 2013. The anticipation surrounding an event to which we could fly was enough to get us excited for the weekend ahead, but we knew very little of what the NCAA had in store for us and 350 other student athletes and administrative staff.
We arrived in Providence on a rainy, slightly muggy day, but our spirits were not to be dampened by a slightly warm November Thursday. We boarded a coach bus along with the plane-full of athletes that came with us and we drove through the city of Providence to reach our hotel. We were given time to go to our rooms and freshen up, explore the mall adjacent to the beautiful Omni Hotel and sit down for introductions and an early evening meal together.
Contrary to what we expected, our roommates were not the athletes we had come with from our institution, but were chosen and assigned at random. My roommate is a George Washington University softball player, native to California. Introductions were a comical coincidence, as we both share the same name. The two Victorias hit it off instantly -- much to our relief.
We had been on our feet since 6 a.m. that morning, but the energy level in the dining room was contagious and ensured our alert listening to the forum MC. After an introduction that included blasting music from every corner of the vast ballroom and dancing, we were told to split up according to the colours on our nametags. My colour is teal. Our first 'breakout' session included learning more about the other members of our group and playing ice breaker games.
Due to the fact that I was expecting to sit in conference rooms and listen to gifted and prestigious lecturers for four days, this took me quite by surprise. All of the aforementioned criteria still applied, but we were playing 'get to know you' games with our teal group facilitators and getting to know the other student athletes and staff in the room.
As though the more-than-casual introductions were not enough to sate our desire for individual interactions, the entire leadership forum was then escorted into the mall next door and directed to Dave and Busters. The entire arcade was reserved for the use of the forum and its participants. We spent the next two hours feasting on boneless buffalo chicken wings and playing video games with our peers and facilitators. This weekend was turning out to be a whole lot more than Sam and I had expected. The end of the night came with a welcome sigh of relief and we collapsed into our beds, under strict orders to report for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. on Friday morning.
As the gym is a facility of the hotel that guests are welcome to use, I took full advantage of it. 5:15 a.m. saw my phone alarm setting off and letting me know a new day had dawned. After a good long workout with many other fellow athletes, including a Women's Lightweight Rower from Buffalo University in New York we returned to the dining hall to eat breakfast. Our timetable for the day was outlined by the MC and more dancing ensued. We then broke away into our colour teams again and engaged in further discussion about the DiSC assessments we all took prior to arriving at the forum. We learned about the true value of the Dominating, influencing, Steady and Conscientious styles of leadership and how to interact with each of them successfully. There was fluid and open dialogue between all group members and it was wonderful to experience individuals at the administrative level being frank and honest with student athletes about their fears and shortcomings in their own leadership styles.
From there we broke out into another meeting session where we discussed things imperative to the NCAA governance and it's functioning. All of the student athletes partook in group discussion that allowed us to make decisions on theoretical situations such as transfer exceptions and miscellaneous expense in addition to scholarship monies that athletes are eligible to receive. We learned that there are some truly difficult decisions being made every day at the administrative and governance level of the NCAA, and that the true interests at heart of the staff are those of the student athletes.
This transparency of communication between leadership groups on the hierarchy of the social ladder was amazing to experience and has left us able to really respect the need for communication in good leadership. Similar was the approach to our SAAC meetings after our lunch break. This time, however, we were split up by Division and not our colour groups. The Division 1 group engaged with our facilitators and talked about the importance of the Student Athletic Advisory Committees on our campuses and how we can use these to bridge the gap between the three spheres that most institutions offer their students: academics, athletics and social or philanthropic organizations such as campus clubs and Greek life.
The day ended with some much-needed free time during which I was able to connect with an old high school friend from Australia who now runs cross country for Providence College. The fact that the leadership forum has provided me with opportunity for connection and re-connection on so many different levels holds an incredible amount of promise for the next two days. We are now armed with the basics, the 'foundations' if you will of leadership. We were expecting very little, if nothing at all, of what we experienced, so the next two days where we are able to apply and learn these foundational learning tools and building blocks should help us advance and interact in ways we never thought possible with our peers and our superiors not just in the athletic sphere but in the next phases of our lives as well.
The excitement is building, bring on day 3!
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Rowing
MF
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