Empowering Student Leadership

It's amazing what students can do when we give them the chance. One of the questions we have to ask ourselves is 'how can their leadership skills best meet the needs of the school' - or more specifically, the athletic or physed department?

Every strong intramural program that I know of has strong student leadership. These students do not have to be athlete's - as long as they are organized and responsible, they will do a great job with your intramural program. Here are some tips for organizing your student leadership group:

- have a group relevant to the size of your program; if you plan to do intramurals 3X a week have at least 9 - 10 students; this way the students can be put in groups of 3 and be responsible for one day per week

- set up an application process for those interested; you may choose to interview the candidates or just pick them
- make sure that you always have at least 50% returning for next year; therefore it is important not to have just senior students on your council

- make sure the students on your council are also playing in the program
- reward your student leaders; a t-shirt, pizza lunches, and recognizing their efforts are very important
- allow them to make decisions; let them be creative

Strong student leadership takes a large amount of the work and responsibility off the teacher. They will do the set up, officiating, PR and whatever else factors into your program.

It takes a co-operation and team work to run a quality intramural program. Make sure that your students are put of this effort!