Student-athlete centred Leadership Academy launched by Pronghorn Athletics

“All of us have leadership potential within ourselves. The vision of our Leadership Academy is to empower our student-athletes with the power to influence both their personal behaviours as well as those around them,” McInnes said.

In partnership with Dr. Scott Rathwell, a faculty member from the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Lethbridge, the University of Lethbridge will become the first University in Western Canada to offer a program of this kind.

Dr. Rathwell’s research program on leadership and university athlete development will be instrumental to the success of our Leadership Academy. More specifically, his expertise allowed him to create one of the first theoretically driven and evidenced-based leadership programs in Canada. The Pronghorn Leadership Academy is uniquely qualified for fostering leadership because every lesson given to athletes will be based on empirical data and evaluated with scientific rigour to ensure effectiveness.

At its core, the academy takes a social identity approach to leadership. Consequently, in the first year, the university has selected athletes who represent the leadership groups of all nine U SPORTS teams at the University of Lethbridge.

With these athlete leaders, they will launch the program by reconstructing what it means to be a Pronghorn and will be setting a new standard of excellence. By co-creating a unified pronghorn identity and standard of excellence, they’re establishing the foundation necessary to galvanize players’ motivation and harness the power of their athletes’ coordinated energies in order to optimize achievement in the three pillars of success: sport, the classroom, and the community.

Athletes in the first year of the leadership academy will also be taught essential life skills (i.e., initiative, teamwork, social skills, and networking) that will allow them to achieve a standard of excellence and prepare them for their transition into the workforce.

Dalton Sward

Third-year Pronghorn men’s hockey player Dalton Sward explained that the leadership academy has provided him with a learning experience that will help his development in the future, even after sports.

“It has allowed me to develop as both a person and a leader. The leadership academy provides Pronghorn athletes with the opportunity to interact with each other and come out of their comfort zones to learn skills needed to become leaders within their teams and the Pronghorn family,” Sward stated.

Another participant in the inaugural year of the academy, and three-year member of the women’s rugby team, Keegan Brantner said of her experience – “I feel that the leadership academy is a great program for current and future Pronghorn student-athletes. The program allows us to learn to become better leaders and therefore strengthen our athletic programs.”

“The support, training and guidance Scott, Spencer and Josh gave us was essential to the growth and development for each of us as leaders. I have found it to be a very valuable experience that has given me tools and strategies that I can use to become a better leader on the rugby pitch and to move forward into a career after athletics.”

Esteemed alumni and respected community member Joshua Hoetmer will be working with Dr. Rathwell to deliver the Pronghorn Leadership Academy.

Hoetmer was recently awarded the 2017 Canadian Sport Psychology Association Young Professional of the Year title for his outstanding work as a mental performance consultant. His experience developing high-performance athletes from the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball, Hockey Canada, Saskatoon Blades and ASDCSW will be invaluable to the successful delivery of our program.

Rounding out the staff is Spencer Pommells, a former Men’s Hockey Player at the University of Windsor.

Pommells relocated to Lethbridge in September 2016 to begin working with the Pronghorns and is currently acting as the Manager of Athletics. Spencer will be graduating from his master’s degree in leadership at the University of Guelph this fall 2019, and his research program focused on university student-athlete development.

By the 2020-2021 season, the Pronghorn Leadership Academy will be fully integrated and operate under a multi-staged approach to leadership development by offering three successive courses: Pronghorn Way, Leading the Pronghorns, and Pronghorn Legacy.

The Pronghorn Way: is a program designed to provide the necessary foundation for first- and second-year student-athletes who have been identified for having leadership potential. This program will teach athletes social identity leadership concepts, as well as their standard of excellence. Moreover, it will provide training and support for athletes on the life skills required to lead by example and achieve that standard.

The Pronghorn way is currently being offered.

Leading the Pronghorns is designed for senior members of teams (i.e., captains and senior members of the leadership groups). This program will teach athletes transformative leadership styles. Further, it will provide training and support for athletes on the skills required to lead others. More specifically, athletes will learn how to inspire others, how to be a role model, and how to stimulate followers and optimize development.

Leading the Pronghorns will be first implemented during the 2019-2020 season.

Pronghorn Legacy is designed for senior leaders who have already completed both The Pronghorn way and Leading the Pronghorns programs. This program will teach athletes about creating culture.

Additionally, training and support for athletes on the skills required to advance and promote core group interests, stand up for and defend group interests, (c) champion group concerns, and (d) inspire others to realize group goals. Athletes in this program will learn to have a lasting impact on their teammates, coaches, members of the athletic department, as well as on members of the on- and off-campus communities.

The Pronghorn Legacy will be first implemented during the 2020-2021 season.

by Aaron Mahoney

Student-athlete centred Leadership Academy launched by Pronghorn Athletics

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