Raymond High School Athletic Director Mike Tully is initiating a new new program, Proactive Coaching. for student-athletes that gets athletes more involved with the local community. The goal is for it to have a positive affect on both the school and the community as a whole.
Tully discussed how the new program got started and what's to follow.
"Shortly after I was hired this spring, I had a conversation with Mr. (Principal Dave) Vetter about bringing in a speaker from a company called Proactive Coaching, which is based on Camano Island," Tully said. "Proactive Coaching is all about intentionally teaching life lessons through athletics. We agreed that this was the direction we wanted to go.
"So in June, we brought in Matt Blair, who is one of Proactive Coaching's speakers," Tully continued. "I first met Matt when he was the AD and boys basketball coach in Ilwaco, so I knew he understood what it is like in a smaller school environment. Matt has helped us to develop our core covenants.
"Core covenants are a binding agreement that is visible to those that observe our teams and program," Tully added. "They are the things that we stand for as an athletic department and what we hope to be known for."
Commitment
and Selflessness
"At the first meeting, the coaches got together and we developed two core covenants that we felt were the most important things that we wanted to teach our student-athletes in this coming year," Tully said. "The two covenants we decided on were commitment and selflessness. These were two areas that we felt needed work. Once we decided on the covenants, we had to develop an idea of what they looked like for the AD, coaches, athletes, and parents in four areas: school, the community, practices, and games.
Family as the
Third Covenant
"This past Friday, Matt returned to meet with some of the student-athletes who are captains and/or leaders in the athletic department, as well as the coaches," Tully explained. "Matt talked to the kids about some of the qualities of leaders and led them to decide on a third covenant. The kids chose family as the third and final covenant. Coaches, parents, student-athletes, and I will all be expected to abide by these covenants. Each of these groups will hold the other accountable. If I'm not adhering to the covenants, I hope that a coach or athlete will be able to call me out on it, just like I would to them."
Into the Public Eye
"The next step in the process is to get the covenants out to the public," Tully said. "They will be presented at our pre-season parent meeting on Sunday (Aug. 16). We will be making posters to put in each classroom to help remind our student-athletes of what is expected of them. Our student-leaders will also be taking fliers to businesses in the area to see if they can post our covenants in the businesses to get the word out about our expectations of our student-athletes. My hope is that we can work with the community to maintain high expectations for everyone involved in our program. Student-athletes will be expected to be leaders in our school and community. Over the next couple years, my hope is that we can stay committed to this path and have a positive affect on the school and community as a whole."