By Andrew Chirico
Sports Editor
With their best five-game start in 16 seasons and already matching last year’s win total of three, the Washington College women’s soccer team has found a new identity through a discovery by Head Coach Kerry Smith.
In 2015, the program What Drives Winning was co-founded by Brett Ledbetter and Becky Burleigh, and today it has evolved into a movement that transcends sports and has formed a community among coaches who seek to increase awareness beyond the X and O’s of everyday life.
Smith discovered the program while attendig a separate conference, but was unable to attend the inaugural sessions last summer. Throughout that year Smith learned more about the program.
“I must have watched some of the 2015 videos over a dozen times and they are full of so many ideas and nuggets of wisdom. They are coaches who have not only been successful in terms of championships; they’ve had that success while placing a huge emphasis on developing their student-athletes as people too,” Smith said. “Many of the coaches I would never have heard of because they are coaching different sports, but it demonstrates that we are all facing the same struggles no matter what sport we coach.”
Smith was able to attend this year’s What Drives Winning conference, and it has made a positive impact on her program ever since. After introducing some exercises at a clinic in August that some of her players helped with, the team was ecstatic to participate in the performance and moral skills exercises in pre-season. The program has athletes pick a set of traits from each skill set.
Performance skills are set to determine abilities to be a better athlete. Meanwhile, moral skills are designed to govern relationships with others. Smith stressed the emphasis in not calling them “skills” and not “traits”. Smith had her players pick five of those 13 qualities off a sheet with both a performance and moral category. After exercises, all players wrote a speech to reflect on their experiences.
When asked about the purpose of the exercises, Smith said, “By placing more emphasis on the processes that going into producing good performances and measuring themselves on character, something more meaningful than results, they have the opportunity to be more self-confident. Not surprisingly, in the long run, the improved self-confidence and higher levels of performance often lead to better results.”
Smith feels that the exercises haven’t just given her a team an edge on just the field. “The courses focus the athlete on caring more about who they are as a person and what they contribute to the bigger picture. By focusing more on things they can control, their performance skills and moral skills, they can continue to grow as both a person and an athlete,” she said.
Senior Erin Smedley is one player who has learned several lessons from the program Smith shared with the team.
“The exercises forced me to put my personal goals into words so I was able to understand what I actually wanted both on and off the field. When my goals became finite they also became achievable, allowing me to better understand what I needed to do in order to make them happen,” Smedley said. “I have learned how to retrain my brain in order to increase my mental strength and toughness. I have learned how to talk to myself in a positive and constructive way, pushing out negativity and self-doubt. I can now say that I am a fighter and believe it and perform like one.”
Along with Smedley, junior Maribeth Harrington was able to learn this about herself that she couldn’t imagine happening before the program.
“What Drives Winning has helped me not only realize the strengths that I have as a person but, the attributes that I would like to work towards. I have set goals that I have been working towards to become a better player on the field and a better person off the field,” Harrington said.
It’s safe to say the program has changed the culture around the program in a positive way, especially on the field. The Shorewomen have already matched last year’s win total, and even surpassed their goal total by last year in just their first five games, scoring 14.
“One of the goals for this group of players was to change the program’s history, and it’s really nice to see how they are being rewarded for coming into preseason fit and working for each other,” Smith said. “Personally, the bigger reward is seeing the moments of growth that are happening daily on an individual level and team level; ultimately that is the reason why I coach.”
The Shorewomen will travel to Gettysburg College to compete in their second Centennial Conference game of the season. With a 4 p.m. start, the game can be viewed via live-stream off the WC Athletics’ webpage.