Lead ‘Em Up leadership program brought to Schreiber High School
For the 2022/2023 school year, Port Washington Athletics Department is the first athletic program in Nassau County to incorporate a dedicated leadership coach working with the entire athletic program, consisting of each fall, winter and spring team.
The Port Washington athletics department will be utilizing the services of Lead ‘Em Up, facilitated by Lead ‘Em Up founder Adam Bradley, to host three full day leadership trainings, a series of virtual leadership trainings with each team, as well as providing pre-season consultation and strategy with each coach to design each team’s season-long leadership program. In addition, each coach will have full access to the Lead ‘Em Up curriculum, taking their student-athletes through various leadership trainings throughout the season.
Lead ‘Em Up will also be part of their athletic programs’ seasonal awards, presenting a list of various leadership and character awards.
“The training is going on throughout the season,” said Port Washington Athletic Director Nick Schratwieser. “We received an Ed-Foundation grant for the department to work with the organization and part of that grant was to bring Adam Bradley up to Port Washington.”
Bradley has come up to Port for one day so far and is planning on coming up two more days this season.
“[The program is] really powerful stuff if you dive into some of the work,” said Schratwieser. “The Saturday we had Adam up here was a very special day working with the students. Kids met Adam one time for the initial kick off.”
Each Port coach has participated in consultation calls with Bradley to outline a specific plan for their individual teams for what they need as far as leadership training goes.
“The coaches then do the training on their own with the team throughout the season,” said Schratwieser. “Each team is at a various point in the program so far. A lot of the work and lessons are done as a group with the team working through different scenarios and learning with each other as they go.”
Boys Baseball coach Sean Dooley and Softball coach Eric Sutz introduced the program to Schratwieser and the department a few years back.
“Dooley and Sutz used the program and introduced it to me when I started here,” said Schratwieser. “We used the program a little bit more each year. Salem Elementary school also uses Bradley and the program for their staff.”
Fall sports teams have been participating in the Lead ‘Em Up program and have received Green Team Verified stickers. The stickers serve as a celebration for the players going through Lead ‘Em Up program and are on the Green Team. Lead ‘Em Up will also be part of their athletic programs’ seasonal awards, and will be presenting various leadership and character awards.
—Information provided by Lead ‘Em Up
with additional reporting by Julie Prisco
