TEACHING LIFE SKILLS THROUGH ATHLETICS

Ashland High School coaches and student-athletes project an image of gracious competitors who embrace challenge, enjoy the process, win with humility, handle defeat with dignity, advocate for their sport, and are positive role models.

We believe that the program of interscholastic athletics is an integral component of the total educational structure. While we will strive to make our teams as competitive as possible, our primary objective is to help our student-athletes acquire important skills that will help them to be successful in their adult lives. Our efforts as coaches will be focused on teaching our athletes how to win and not just on winning. Through positive reinforcement and intentional teaching, we will show our athletes how to succeed with humility and persevere through setbacks in a productive manner.

Our program places a high value on the power of participation. Within our educational setting, every effort will be made to provide athletic experiences for as many students as possible. We will strive to offer as many athletic teams as can be adequately coached, managed, and supported. Our competitive teams will be selected on the basis of need, interest, and ability. We will place student-athletes on teams appropriate to their physical and emotional abilities. At the varsity level, our coaches will select players and decide playing time based on their judgment of combinations that will make the team as competitive as possible. At the sub-varsity levels, there will be more of a focus on player development, although playing time may still not be equal for all participants.

Our coaches will strive to be positive role models who display in-depth knowledge of their activity, an ability to teach, strong leadership, ethical behavior, and interest in holistic development of their athletes. Winning of championships should transpire as an outgrowth of ethical coaching and healthy competition.

The desired outcome for participants in our athletic program is that they will attain the following traits.

We also hope that, during their high school athletic experience, our student-athletes will have fun and build fulfilling relationships. Our programs will strive to provide an opportunity for our students to release stress in a healthy manner and instill fitness for life as a core value. The product of our investment in athletics will be healthy adults who contribute to their community in a positive manner.

Patrick Grady, Athletic Director         

(541)482-2377

patrick.grady@ashland.k12.or.us