Lessons Learned from a Leadership Development Club for High School Athletes

Leadership is a highly desirable skill in athletics and can be carried throughout the lifetime. Too often, however, leadership is only superficially discussed with high school student-athletes and rarely taught or reinforced over time. This article provides a description of a youth leadership club formed at a high school for the purpose of sharing leadership principles in an environment that could empower young student-athletes to create their own way to learn and practice leadership. This entails the process of student-athletes developing meaningful and varying roles; then creating, directing and facilitating their own leadership program for middle school students, resulting in a meaningful and more complete educational experience.