Bison Wrestling, Women's Soccer Teams Participate in Leadership Event

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell wrestling and women's soccer teams last week participated in a unique leadership program, made possible through a generous donation from the BLBB Charitable Foundation. This brand-new program, which is slated to officially begin in the spring of 2020, will offer leadership training for the teams once per yer for three consecutive years.

Each year's session will be centered on one of the following themes: experiential leadership, servant leadership, and situational leadership through history. The program will offer distinctive problem-solving opportunities with the male/female dynamic, build comradery, and enhance existing team cultures.

To kick off this exciting program, this the Bison wrestling and women's soccer teams went through an afternoon of three activities tied to each theme. This also allowed both teams have the opportunity to get to know each other and blend their different leadership styles when working through each phase of the program. Both teams were mixed and split into four groups to complete the three phases of the kick-off.

Experiential leadership
- The task was to build a raft from the given mix of supplies to safely send one member of the team from one end of the pool to the other without touching the water in 30 minutes.
Servant leadership
- The groups learned from Lynn Pierson, assistant director for community service in the Office of Civic Engagement, about what it means to serve as a leader, and the resources for doing so at Bucknell and in the greater Lewisburg community, and the great need of these communities.
- The groups each created no-sew blankets for the local Red Cross and homeless shelters.
Situational leadership
- The groups each tackled the task of creating a specific challenging team situation that another group then had to create a plan to solve. Situations were formed around their choices of the topics of violation of team rules, issues with team culture, player drama and teammate attitude issues.
- Each group presented their approach to the solution to the larger group.

"We feel really fortunate to have this opportunity to partner with wrestling to develop essential leadership skills across the genders that will positively impact our team now and in their lives beyond," said head women's soccer coach Kelly Cook.

"This was a great opportunity for our team to develop their character and leadership skills outside the athletic arena," said head wrestling coach Dan Wirnsberger. "These are lessons they will take with them for the rest of their lives."

The event was capped off with a group dinner, where the student-athletes reflected on what they learned and allowed both teams to continue to get to know each other. Coordinated in conjunction with the Bucknell Athletics Leadership Institute, this program was specifically designed for this initiative, however is also serving as a pilot program for potential use with other teams in the future.

Gallery: (5/1/2019) Wrestling, Women's Soccer BALI Event

Bucknell University Athletics

Bison Wrestling, Women's Soccer Teams Participate in Leadership Event

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