SHOW TOPIC
Return to School Athletics & Activities
SPECIAL GUEST
Ms. Heather Lewis, Seneca Valley Athletic & Activities Director
Ms. Lewis, entering her ninth year as the District’s Athletic & Activities Director, has previous experience as the chief operating officer for USA Field Hockey, a U.S. Olympic & Paralympic National Governing Body. As part of this role, she hosted major events for the International Federation of Hockey, supported the women’s and men’s national teams in international competition, and assisted in the reorganization of the Association’s executive leadership structure. She also has previous experience as the head field hockey coach, head women’s lacrosse coach, associate athletic director and assistant athletic director for Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. Additional experiences include time spent as an official for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and president of the National Field Hockey Coaches Association.
A former athlete herself, Ms. Lewis was a regional All-American and All-ACC and captain of the field hockey team, and regional All-American and NCAA champion for women’s lacrosse, all while at the University of Maryland, College Park. Ms. Lewis has a bachelor’s of science in zoology and a master’s in kinesiology from the University of Maryland.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
• Student-Athletes and this year's sport season
• Education through sport
• Travel roster restrictions
• Plans to provide the best experience for fans
USEFUL INFORMATION
www.svsd.net/Athletics
https://www.svsd.net/ReturnToSport
SHOW TOPIC
Return to School Athletics & Activities
SPECIAL GUEST
Ms. Heather Lewis, Seneca Valley Athletic & Activities Director
Ms. Lewis, entering her ninth year as the District’s Athletic & Activities Director, has previous experience as the chief operating officer for USA Field Hockey, a U.S. Olympic & Paralympic National Governing Body. As part of this role, she hosted major events for the International Federation of Hockey, supported the women’s and men’s national teams in international competition, and assisted in the reorganization of the Association’s executive leadership structure. She also has previous experience as the head field hockey coach, head women’s lacrosse coach, associate athletic director and assistant athletic director for Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. Additional experiences include time spent as an official for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and president of the National Field Hockey Coaches Association.
A former athlete herself, Ms. Lewis was a regional All-American and All-ACC and captain of the field hockey team, and regional All-American and NCAA champion for women’s lacrosse, all while at the University of Maryland, College Park. Ms. Lewis has a bachelor’s of science in zoology and a master’s in kinesiology from the University of Maryland.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
• Student-Athletes and this year's sport season
• Education through sport
• Travel roster restrictions
• Plans to provide the best experience for fans
USEFUL INFORMATION
www.svsd.net/Athletics
https://www.svsd.net/ReturnToSport
FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)
Voices E14 Heather Lewis
File Name: Voices E14 Heather Lewis.mp3
File Length: 00:13:05
SPEAKERS
Int - Introduction
JK - Jeff Krakoff
HL - Heather Lewis
00:00:02:24 - 00:00:07:24
Introduction: Welcome to Voices, a Podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District.
00:00:09:26 - 00:00:18:10
Jeff Krakoff: I'm Jeff Krakoff. Today we are with Heather Lewis who's the athletic and activities director at Seneca Valley. Thanks for joining us today, Heather.
00:00:18:12 - 00:00:18:27
Heather Lewis: Thanks, Jeff.
00:00:19:04 - 00:00:41:11
Jeff Krakoff: So you know sports are on everybody's mind. You know whether it's nationally, state, local, lots of decisions need to be made; kind of before we get into guidelines and safety, just let's talk a little bit about sports in general. I know that you're fond of the acronym SDS - strength, discipline and sacrifice.
00:00:41:13 - 00:00:42:09
Jeff Krakoff: What's that all about?
00:00:44:00 - 00:01:12:28
Heather Lewis: Each year I do an annual message when I meet with our student-athletes at the start of their season and I spent the summer thinking about what it was gonna be like for our student-athletes if the PIAA, which they ultimately decided to allow us to have sports. And I just started to think about trying to put myself in their shoes and how are we going to make this successful. And to me, those are the three words that came up. One it's going to take a lot of strength from our kids
00:01:14:27 - 00:01:37:12
Heather Lewis: to stay committed to what they have to do to play sports. From a personal hygiene standpoint, to learning that they're going to need discipline they're gonna need a lot of it because we're asking young kids to go out and compete and train and be masked up and stay six feet, at least six feet apart, from each other and the natural thing when you're part of a team is to come together.
00:01:37:15 - 00:01:38:00
Jeff Krakoff: Right.
00:01:38:02 - 00:01:52:06
Heather Lewis: We're actually asking them to separate and there's just emotion and excitement that comes with sport and we're asking our our student-athletes to kind of contain that in some regards and that that takes discipline.
00:01:52:19 - 00:02:26:04
Heather Lewis: And the other thing that I talked to them about is it takes sacrifice to make this happen. And what I mean by that is I'm asking them to have some social sacrifice and what they're accustomed to doing in terms of socializing with their friends and the carefree life that they might be used to. It's not going to happen right now. So I you know I always give them an acronym and initiatives SDS. It's strength, discipline and sacrifice and you know for all of us I throw in there a little dose of patience as well.
00:02:26:06 - 00:02:26:21
Jeff Krakoff: Yeah.
00:02:26:23 - 00:02:47:28
Jeff Krakoff: Yeah right. So you know team sports are great, individual sports, but you know you have your traditional idea of let's all be good teammates, but as you just said we really have to be good teammates, be responsible and sacrifice. What is being a good teammate you being a better teammate than a player being to you?
00:02:48:00 - 00:03:20:22
Heather Lewis: Right. Yeah, I've heard this some I heard a similar phrase last year former professional athlete was talking about his role as a college player and it just really resonated with me that the concept of "I need to be a really an even better teammate than I aspire to be as a player." So as athletes we all want to be the best out there. We want to be the most talented quarterback, runner, soccer player, tennis player but, what I'm asking them to be is even better teammates.
00:03:20:24 - 00:03:51:20
Heather Lewis: And that's where the concept of sacrifice comes in. That's where you know hey telling my teammate "Don't forget get your mask up" you know and taking that leadership role and really when you're doing you're an awesome teammate you're willing to sacrifice for the greater good. And we keep coming back to that word sacrifice and that's that's what I mean and I I've been talking to our student-athletes about the past 12 months about this concept to be an even better teammate than player. That's my challenge to them.
00:03:51:22 - 00:04:13:28
Jeff Krakoff: Got it. So it's more than just performance on the field or court. So that kind of leads me what a sports really mean, right? A: It's teaching skills it's teaching how to be a good teammate, part of a team. But there's a lot of life lessons that come out of sport. Can you talk a little bit about the the focus for this fall along those lines?
00:04:14:00 - 00:04:50:07
Heather Lewis: Sure. And honestly, the focus for us hasn't changed since I started here a little more than eight years ago. It I've always had the philosophy that that sports is really you know what we're teaching. It's education through sport. I talk about the courts and the fields and the pools as being a non-traditional classroom. And in every experience that our coaches and student-athletes share there is a lesson to be learned. You know I I talked last spring to our student-athletes who you know sadly lost their entire season and I said listen we're athletes we're built for this.
00:04:50:09 - 00:05:21:11
Heather Lewis: And life is going to present you similar challenges down the road. We don't know what they look like, but you're going to learn through this experience how to handle the next challenge that comes before you. And that message continues now. I don't think any of us could predict we would be here in September. But we are. And so how do we learn from it? And what do we learn from it? And we learn perseverance and we learn that life isn't always fair.
00:05:21:15 - 00:05:42:06
Heather Lewis: And I think that's our rules coaches and educators is to teach young people that you know life is going to present you some challenges. So are we as coaches providing those student-athletes with a foundation and a skill set that they'll be able to handle challenges that come their way for the rest of their life.
00:05:43:09 - 00:05:59:06
Jeff Krakoff: So the big challenge of making false sports happen and keep happening. I know there's another acronym you like to talk about the three C's that this fall season is depended on. What what are the three C's and can you explain a little more detail?
00:05:59:15 - 00:06:38:15
Heather Lewis: Sure. I'm a firm believer that any successful program is gonna be built on culture, commitment and community. That's that's what I believe in. My responsibility is to create the right culture in our athletics program and having coaches help me with that. This year's culture really centers around discipline and making sure that we're following all the protocols that are necessary so that we can have a sports season. So that's the culture that we're creating for this year, along with just one you know fair play, and positive sporting behavior and integrity, and our kids know all that.
00:06:38:17 - 00:07:12:02
Heather Lewis: Doing things the right way with class. But the commitment comes into play with our student-athletes making a commitment to embracing that culture, wanting to be a part of that culture, recognizing the value of that culture. And then the third piece is it's going to require the community. You know this isn't just about coaches or just about athletes or just about one singular program. This is about our you know really the Seneca Valley community and we need the community to buy in to what our culture is.
00:07:12:04 - 00:07:26:07
Heather Lewis: We need our community to make a commitment to the culture that we're trying to create. So I always believe that a few of the right culture and people are willing to make a commitment and that your community buys into it that you're gonna have a successful program.
00:07:27:22 - 00:07:38:15
Jeff Krakoff: Let's talk a little bit about the teams themselves. Are there any changes as far as make-up roster size, travel rosters and the other protocols that are gonna be different?
00:07:38:17 - 00:08:11:10
Heather Lewis: Sure. Yeah. And each sport is a little bit different. So for example the tennis team, the golf teams, you're not going to see much change in in traditional roster sizes. Depending on where we're traveling to that host school might have some limitations on our travel party size that will come into play for football. Most definitely. The host school will have the responsibility of staffing the event so there's going to be with the current limitation of 250 people. There's
00:08:11:12 - 00:08:41:29
Heather Lewis: There's going to be an additional group of people that have to make that event happen at the whole school which was officials and game management crew and P.A. announcer and stats. So to make the event fall within the 250 maximum guideline that means the team that is traveling that doesn't have that extra personnel will have to have a smaller travel party. So I know when our varsity football team travels to Hempfield that we will not be able to travel with every single athlete. And that that breaks my heart. It really does and I know our coaches.
00:08:42:01 - 00:09:05:18
Heather Lewis: It's not an easy decision. But the flip side is when we are at home all of our athletes will be able to dress. So you know it is just a casualty of COVID-19 and the parameters that are in place right now. And should those restrictions relax, then we'll be able to to make sure that every child gets on the bus and can travel and be a part of the team experience and away games.
00:09:05:20 - 00:09:34:14
Jeff Krakoff: Now you mentioned how big a part of the community high school sporting events are. One thing we know is that all the mandates, recommendations coming from the state they've been changing quite a bit. So at this point it really doesn't make sense to speculate how many fans are going to, be might be able to attend various high school sports throughout the fall. But what can you tell us about your plans to provide the best experience possible for fans this fall?
00:09:35:06 - 00:10:11:12
Heather Lewis: What we are doing is making every effort we can to live broadcast our events. We have a pretty good plan in place right now for our volleyball games in the gymnasium and the senior high gymnasium and our events at NexTier stadium. Our next step is to try and be creative and see how can we get some of our lower level J.V. or I'm sorry middle school and junior high events live broadcast. I will tell you what's really awesome about being in this job is we have kids helping us with their technology expert. You
00:10:11:14 - 00:10:46:16
Heather Lewis: You know that's the beauty of this generation. They know technology. They know the ways around it. And so we have students involved in this process, myself and Mr. Furman the assistant athletic director, we did a test run with our girl's volleyball scrimmage on September 1st and it went well. Community was able to view it on our YouTube channel, so as long as we have a ban on spectators we're going to do everything we can to get a live broadcast out for our for our parents and community to still experience what their teams are doing.
00:10:46:26 - 00:10:55:06
Jeff Krakoff: OK that's great. So do you have any final thoughts, Heather whether I'm an athlete a parent or just a fan.
00:10:55:10 - 00:10:58:28
Jeff Krakoff: What do I need to really know about this for sport?
00:10:59:20 - 00:11:36:17
Heather Lewis: I think the biggest message is all of us need to have patience because the start of the 2020 school year and the fall sports season is unlike anything else that we've experienced and how we have traditionally conducted our athletics program may not be how we necessarily can do it this year; from reduced travel squad sizes, to restrictions on fans or no fans, to the limitations of officials and maybe only having a soccer game with two officials as opposed to three officials.
00:11:36:19 - 00:12:18:00
Heather Lewis: There are a lot of changes and challenges that we're working through on a daily basis and I say to our coaches all the time. Just take a deep breath. We've got to have some patience through all this and we've got to be adaptable. I understand the frustration of parents not being able to watch your children compete. I truly do. And there's nobody wants to see the stands full you know more than I because of the environment that our community creates. So I'm just asking for a little bit of patience that we are working every day to try and make this as positive an experience as possible and are our goal is to literally get these kids playing in as many games as they can.
00:12:18:22 - 00:12:37:19
Heather Lewis: Hopefully for the entire season. But sometimes that's out of our control. So I'm just I'm I'm lucky I work in a great district. I've got a community that loves their Raider athletics and I'm just going to ask that we kind of all remember culture, commitment and community and we're all in this together.
00:12:37:22 - 00:12:54:03
Jeff Krakoff: All right and as you said patience. This is a fluid patient situation and I'm sure it's going to remain to be that way and just have to be flexible. So I wish I wish you and all the athletes and coaches a safe, fun competitive school year. Thanks for taking the time today.
00:12:54:06 - 00:12:54:21
Heather Lewis: Thanks Jeff.
00:12:55:02 - 00:12:56:21
Jeff Krakoff: All right take care.