Setting a New Standard Newly-formed group aims to promote healthy lifestyle skills among student-athletes. by Ammar Hussain & Caroline Cubbin design by Loukas Bezanis
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hris Robinson walks into the health room on a chilly January morning. After everyone takes their seats, Robinson and his fellow students promptly begin their discussion. The topic for today: nutrition and hydration. Robinson and his fellow students sit attentively as P.E. teacher Jason Hayes explains how nutrition and hydration impact performance. Robinson, along with every student there, is a leader of his athletic team at Central and has joined the recently formed group: Red Devil Standard. Red Devil Standard (RDS) was created last year by Hayes and fellow P.E. teacher Lynn Hatzikostantis in order to spread scientific-based information to help the student-athletes and teams at Central. Team captains and other leaders are invited to join the club and participate in meetings where they then learn about a range of topics, including sleep, stress, and diet. Those student-athletes are expected to then pass that information along to their teammates. Current sponsors Hayes and Courtney Wallace prepare presentations on studentselected topics in advance and share guidance to the team leaders. However, students also have the opportunity to give their own personal insight on matters of discussion. Wallace described a typical morning meeting as beginning with a presentation on a topic the members are interested in discussing or learning about, followed by a more logistical discussion in regard to the club’s future. Currently, RDS is looking to grow their club in order to reach more people and get their message out. “It’s really wonderful to watch students become involved and really take ownership over their life. And [within] this group, [they are] trying to help inspire others to live the best they can with regards to nutrition, hydration, sleep, stress management and wanting to help their peers and their teammates,” Wallace said. Hayes explained that he and Hatzikostanis got the idea for starting the club after attending a convention over the summer led by John Underwood,
the founder and director of the Life of an Athlete-Human Performance Project. The project is dedicated to producing manuals outlining how to optimize certain aspects of young people’s lives. According to his website, Underwood has experience training and working with Navy SEALS and Olympic athletes, and has dedicated his career to scientificallydriven research on optimizing human performance. Hayes explained that the RDS curriculum is derived directly from Underwood’s research. As a P.E. teacher and coach for wrestling and football, Hayes said he sees how tired and anxious students are at Central and wanted to provide resources to help students perform their best. “It’s a lifestyle,” Hayes said. “We give information to students on scientificbased research and how [they] can implement it into [their] sports programs.” This year, Hatzikostanis is teaching at South, so Hayes teamed up with Wallace to lead the club at Central. According to Hayes, this year the club is focused on teaching members and the rest of the school body about four distinct domains of performance: diet, sleep, nutrition, and anxiety. Hayes also mentioned that while he and Wallace are leading discussions currently, the goal is for RDS to become primarily student-driven in the future. Wallace stressed the importance of information coming from the students themselves. “I find that it’s a lot more meaningful if the message comes from peers,” Wallace said. “Having been a coach [and teacher] for quite a while, you can say something, but when a [peer] says it, it [carries] a different [weight]. When it comes from adults, [students think] ‘They’re harping on us again, They’re so hard on us.’ But when a peer says it, it makes you think ‘Oh my gosh, I wouldn’t want to let anyone down’.” Wallace also mentioned that while the sponsors do play a role in the meetings as well as in more logistical aspects of the club, the most committed members, which according to Wallace is around 10 to 12
students, have made a logo and t-shirt. Sarah Cernugel, senior, was one of the new members who joined RDS this year after taking on a leadership role within her soccer and basketball teams at Central. Cernugel said that while RDS is still figuring out its schedule for the rest of the year, so far one topic she had found very valuable is sleep. According to Cernugel, they examined at an Olympic level how an extra hour of sleep can bridge the split-second difference between a gold and silver medalist. Robinson, who is the captain of the school’s wrestling team, expanded on the idea of the need for better sleep. He explained that while we all know we are supposed to get more sleep, we don’t really understand how much a lack of sleep can affect our ability to function. “We talked [in RDS] about how if you are a competitive athlete, you should really be getting eight to nine hours of sleep. We then brought that [information] to our teams. I talked about how I understand that school is difficult, but we also have to understand that rest is very important [for] sport[s] and for retaining information in school,” Robinson said. Similarly, Katrina Geiersbach, junior and captain of the girls’ water polo team, emphasized the potential she saw in RDS in helping her team improve. “I thought that as a captain it would be really beneficial for us to go and get new ideas and attend some workshops to bring that back,” Geiersbach said. Geiersbach also stressed the importance of the club and explained why it’s important that student-athletes receive this information. According to Geiersbach, she’s seen a sizeable difference in both her performance and her mindset. “I’m a lot more mindful and aware of my actions and I’ve started thinking on behalf of others more than I have been in the past because of this club. I totally think it’s changed my life, [like] what foods I choose to eat, [and] what attitude and mindset I choose to bring to practice,” Geiersbach said. Wallace shared this sentiment, saying that she has already seen a difference in some of the members of the club, especially in terms of their commitment. “Their sheer passion for an interest in creating sound habits has really shown,” Wallace said. Geiersbach mentioned that she saw additional value in joining RDS not only because of the information and resources that it offers, but also because it offered
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