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ATHLETICS News

From the Desk of Susan Noonan

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Dean of Students Kayla Brown has highlighted Jean Twenge’s iGen research on today’s youth and growing up with cellphones and social media. The effects have made much of us pause and evaluate our methods of instruction by understanding the needs of our students. The same holds true for athletics.

In a recent study by Gould, Nalepa, and Mignano, “Coaching Generation Z Athletes,” the researchers established results that mirrored Twenge’s findings. Children growing up in the digital world spend less time in direct contact with other people. This has resulted in a growing trend of depression, anxiety, depression, and a decrease in attention span. How does this present itself in athletics and how can we as coaches and parents help guide our student-athletes?

First, lets examine some characteristics of Gen Z athletes:

  • They focus on short-term results based on outcome. 
  • They struggle with adversity, social comparisons, communication skills, and having a short attention span. 
  • They have developed many strengths such as coming to a sport with greater knowledge.
  • They are visual learners and are curious to understand the “why” behind drills and practice sessions as they are connected to performance.

Knowing this, how can we then best serve our student-athletes? It is important to stress the significance of process goals. Student-athletes should be encouraged to set daily goals that can lead to their long-term goals. By seeing their improvement, athletes can develop confidence, intrinsic motivation, resiliency, and help alleviate the pressure to compare themselves to others. It is essential that athletes recognize that their hard work on mastering a process directly relates to their success on the field, court, pool, or track.

To help student-athletes develop interpersonal skills relating to communication, athletes should be encouraged to have conversations with coaches. These conversations should be directed to their development as a player and aligned with the GROW Model which encourages questions pertaining to Goals, current Reality, Options, and the Will or Way forward. 

Teachers and coaches have the awesome responsibility to help each student uncover their God-given gifts. The uniqueness of these gifts has not changed through the generations, but how they are wrapped sure has! How easy it would be if our world was not dynamic - what worked for teaching one generation would work for all. Talents would unfold similarly to the quick discovery of using a gift bag. But, our world is dynamic. Our students present themselves with detailed features that require a discerning touch to unveil the beauty within.

Speaking of beautiful talents, check out these amazing Ursuline student-athletes:

  • The Swimming Bears sent seven girls to the State competition and earned an impressive 4th place overall. Abby Dalton ’20 placed third in the 100m Breaststroke and was a member of the bronze medal 200m Free stroke Relay. Hailey Jones ‘21, Cali Brewer ’21, and Ari Tsioutsias ‘22 were also members of the award-winning relay team. The accolades continue as Cali Brewer '21, Abby Dalton '20, and Hailey Jones '21 were recognized as TAPPS Academic All-State recipients.
  • The Basketball Bears take on the Lady Trojans in their first playoff round this Friday, February 14, at 6:00 p.m. at Trinity Christian Academy.   
  • The Soccer Bears are undefeated this year. Along with earning the title of District Champions, they were recently ranked #1 in The Dallas Morning News in the 5A/Other classification. TopDrawer has the UA Soccer Bears ranked 12th Nationally. The Bears play their second round in playoffs tonight, at 5:00 p.m. against Trinity Christian Academy at Prestonwood Christian Academy.  

This is an incredibly busy time in athletics! Spring sports are underway and already promise to make for a very exciting April and May.

Thank you for all our support for our athletes and programs. Go Bears!

Susan Noonan
Director of Athletics