Episode Details

Tyler Johnson:
The benefit and really the purpose is to provide all kids with a positive character-building experience through sports.

Anthony Godfrey:
You're here at various times to help train coaches and student athletes.

Tyler Johnson:
The foundation of those is building trust. How do you build trust with the young people that we're coaching?

Anthony Godfrey:
I love the sense of efficacy that I think coaches and student athletes will get out of this.

Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It is designed to help coaches and student athletes recognize and embrace the true power of being positive.

On this episode of the Supercast, we take you inside athletic trainings where the emphasis is on teamwork, good sportsmanship, and being your best self on and off the playing field. Hear from Jordan School District coaches and student athletes who are truly embracing the concept and spreading the word in a winning way.

We're at Riverton High School today just before a training talking with Bryan Veazie, our District Athletic and Activities Director. Thanks for joining us.

Bryan Veazie:
Thank you. Excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

Anthony Godfrey:
And Tyler Johnson from the Positive Coaching Alliance. You're here to train students today on sportsmanship and you're part of a broader initiative that Mr. Veazie has promoted and initiated to really help elevate the level of coaching and the player experience. So that it's a positive experience and that we get the most out of the time that we're investing in athletics here in Jordan School District.

Tyler Johnson:
Yeah, we're extremely excited to partner with Jordan School District and today work with the student athletes. I've had the honor to work with some of the administrators and some coaches as well. We're excited to continue that work with our partnership and find ways that we can strengthen the athletic culture and find some alignment. And like you said, the benefit and really the purpose is to provide all kids with a positive character-building experience through sports.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the Positive Coaching Alliance generally. What sort of work do you do? You're here at various times to help train coaches and student athletes. How did all this come to be and what's your purpose?

Tyler Johnson:
Sure. Yeah, Positive Coaching Alliance is a national nonprofit organization that started about 25 years ago by Jim Thompson out of Stanford's athletic department, they kind of joked back in a broom closet. It really expanded about 10, 12 years later to being a national organization with people, trainers, and staff all across the country. So my role, I handle partnership development here in the Rocky Mountains as well as one of our educators and trainers that gets to go work with it with kids, coaches, and athletes. And really that's what we try to do is partner with them and find education and the pieces that they're needing to support and supplement the things that they're doing already to strengthen their culture.

So I got to it as being a former athlete. My mom was a teacher and coach and was a college athlete. Personally, as a youngster didn't experience I think a lot of positive coaching. So I was curious about the organization in that aspect and found a lot