by Kevin Jones, Athletic Director
At the end of the 2017-2018 year, Cary Academy finished fourth in the prestigious Wells Fargo Cup. The Cup is the cumulative performance ranking of the entire year of varsity athletics. CA’s fourth place finish came behind the three big Charlotte area schools (Providence, Latin, Country Day). Ravenscroft finished 6th and Durham Academy finished 8th.
Spring Sports Highlights
Baseball = completing their 15th consecutive date with Mickey at the spring training complex in Orlando where they also earned a 12-2 win over Heritage Christian.
Boys Golf = finishing 3rd in the conference and having three individuals qualify for the state meet.
Boys Lacrosse = earning a 14-4 win over the Epiphany School and having the Notre Dame lacrosse team come practice on campus prior to their game against UNC.
Girls Lacrosse = After two years since the programs inception, earning their first ever state playoff bid with a #7 ranking.
Girls Soccer= Continuing their success even after losing five key players from last year’s team. The team finished 3rd in the conference and had a big playoff win over Metrolina Christian at home.
Softball = Watching young players develop at key positions and seeing the rewards of hard work with a redemptive 24-16 win over Jordan High School after losing 20-8 earlier in the season. Also, sweeping DA and St. Mary’s and notching a win over Ravenscroft to finish 3rd in the conference.
Boys Tennis = finishing 2nd in the conference and having a convincing 5-0 win over Metrolina in the playoffs. Plus, regardless of the loss, the team fell just a few games short of beating the #2 seed in the second round of the playoffs.
Boys Track & Field = winning their third TISAC title in the past four years and finishing 3rd overall at the State Meet with a state record setting 4X800 relay team which also competed at the prestigious Penn Relays.
Girls Track & Field = winning their fourth consecutive TISAC title
Leadership Academy sees success
In the fall of 2015, I asked several of our team captains about their roles and responsibilities, common response included: “I lead team stretches”, “I schedule team activities” and “I’m involved in the pre-game meeting with coaches and officials.” Though important, these tasks are merely a tip of the proverbial iceberg in terms of utilizing the potential of our team leaders. But how could we extract more from these individuals? Familiar with the words committed, accountable, decisive, honest and integrity being used to describe a good leader, it’s challenging to put words into action. In reality, our coaches perform a number of behind the scene tasks and simply don’t have the time to mentor their captains leaving them dangling with a title and oftentimes undefined obligations. How do we tackle their development?
Alumni parent, Jeff Janssen, approached me in the spring of 2016 and shared information about his Sports Leadership Academy which targets the development of athletic leadership. Jeff had run a 1 day workshop for CA students several years prior but this was different. Jeff proposed the full implementation of his two year Academy. Regarded for his work with the University of Arizona, Michigan, UNC-Chapel Hill and over 250 institutions in all, we jumped at the opportunity.
In its second year, Coaches Brandon Pope and Ray Pope are the facilitators of Cary Academy’s Leadership Academy. This year the Academy worked with 86 selected, student-athletes on the development of their leadership skills. The Academy is a two year program broken into two components. First year students, often sophomores and juniors, enter “Emerging Leaders” with a goal of teaching students how to lead themselves. Graduates of Emerging Leaders enter “Veteran Leaders” with a focus on students leading others. Both programs consists of six modules with directed lessons and activities in areas including the risk/reward of leadership, commitment, conflict management, vocal leadership and more. The Academy however offers far more than 12 modules over a two year span. Brandon and Ray Pope encourage dialog with coaches and private mentoring opportunities for students who seek help with challenging situations. “The goal of the Leadership Academy extends well beyond the playing field. We want to create leaders in the classroom and community” says Brandon. The development has started to take shape. Coaches have remarked that they are seeing more confident team leaders and athletes that have been more vocal and helped refocus the team during difficult times.
Personally, I’m looking forward to the long term results of the Leadership Academy from both an individual and program perspective. But for now, I’m impressed with its immediate success and the impact the Academy has had on our student-athletes like Senior Captain Joe McDarris: “The Leadership Academy taught me that a leader is not a position or a title, it’s action and example. The Academy helped me with my weaknesses, such as being a vocal leader, and allowed me to encourage my teammates towards success. I truly believe that the Leadership Academy has helped me become the leader that I am now, and it will allow for future leaders to take my place and set the bar high.”
