Many of you have inquired about Championship Training class with the idea of possibly including a similar class in your own curriculum and you are looking for more information to take to your school's administration for consideration. With that in mind I will attempt to keep a weekly log of the class activities here at our web site.

To begin, some background to the class might be helpful. Championship Training class evolved out of a cooperative coaching effort to reach all athletes at North Valley High School in Grants Pass, Oregon. Paul Lindquist, the principal at the time, arranged the schedule so that Bruce Reece (baseball coach), Harold Dabbs (basketball coach) and I would team teach the same class. Bruce and I would plan and handle the weight training. Harold conducted plyometric exercises, form running and speed development. In addition, I started to include aspects of sport psychology on the "off days."

When I took the job at Everett High School in Washington, the principal, Don Barbacovi, arranged for me to include this sports psychology class in the curriculum. As noted in other areas at this site, Everett High School has a rich and storied tradition and is known as "The School of Champions." It was, therefore, a no brainer to entitle the course Championship Training - Training future Champions for The School of Champions.

At Everett we lifted before school at our Breakfast Club, during the school day in weight training classes and after school. Championship Training, therefore, was a complete sports psychology of success class. We made a "deal" with the guidance department to take any and all students as well as the athletes. With a 6 period day they were having trouble finding slots for students, especially Freshmen and Sophs. The students we want to reach the most are the athletes, but the students who can benefit the most are the underachievers. In fact, four "Turn Around Students of the Year" went through the Championship Training curriculum. While at Everett, we taught the class to as many as 75 students at a time in our Little Theater.

In taking the job at Estacada, one of my goals was to include Championship Training in the curriculum. Once again I had to call on my expert deal maker and play 'Let's make a deal.'

The state of Oregon is mandating dramatic educational changes many of which center on testing which leads to a Certificate of Initial Mastery (CIM) during the Sophomore year. One of the many questions confronting educators is what are we going to do with those students who do not pass the test?

On viewing this need, I develop the S.E.T. (Student Effectiveness Training) Class idea. Estacada has block scheduling with 87 minute periods allowing enough time to work on both Championship Training principles and academics. We are identifying students at risk and trying to empower them with enough skills and attitude to be successful when they take the CIM test. In addition, SET Class will be available for those students who do not score well when CIM testing begins next year. Low scoring students will have the opportunity to develop skills necessary for higher scoring on subsequent test.SET Class, simply stated, is the class where you can get "SET for Success."

Of course, success is success. The principles of success do not change whether you are talking to our All-Stater, Peter Gregg, or the person sitting next to him in class who has just failed three of his four first semester classes. Both students can benefit from the doses of motivation and attitude adjustment that are meted out on a daily basis.

We obviously want our athletes in class so they can study the principles of success and apply them to their performances. These athletes and other already achieving but want to achieve more students will serve as mentors and tutors for the SET Class members who are in class to develop their CIM Test skills. We know that this is a win/win situation because not only are the academic skills being developed but those students who are already on the success road are going to learn the material in a new, different and more complete way than ever before. Remember how much better you grasped your course material after the first year you taught it?

In addition, when we pair up these students, they will develop interpersonal that they normally would not. Interesting insights will be discovered on both sides of the aisle.

So . . . from the SET Class page you can see that each class period begins with a lift for the day and a Quote of the Day. Other regular features include inspiring stories that are usually 500-1,000 words in length that come from a variety of places. These stories constitute our "Weekly Reader," and we give them one a week throughout the course of the semester. This week's reader is about Rocky Blier who refused to quit.

We rely heavily on already developed materials from Zig Ziglar, Bob Mowad, Anthony Robbins, etc. in conducting class activities. We also develop computer generated materials and distribute them throughout the course of the semester.

WEEK 1:

In addition to the regular daily quote and lift for the day we have begun the following on going activities.

1. We introduced the book Never Never Quit. We distribute the entries from the book to the students one page at a time. The first handout is about the 1980 Olympic Hockey team.

2. We began the self-image portion of Ziglar's "I Can" class designed for and used by high schools across the country. The lessons for the week include:

personal inventory

bright and broke

Me collage

the 2:20 to Boston

Zig's how many squares do you see? coupled with other illusions on perception

3. Carried on a "Dreams do come true" discussion. We played C. Dion's "The power of the Dream" song from the 1996 Summer Olympics and discussed the lyrics: It is the Power of the Dream that brings us here and feel the flame forever burn. We feel that we are preventing "Flame-Out" in SET Class. After all, if a jet experiences Flame-Out the result is crash and burn while the plane "augers in" and they said in The Right Stuff.

Classroom Wall Picture

4. As you can see the walls in my classroom are packed with motivational posters and materials that are constantly referred to during class. This week's discussion centers on the following 2 posters:

These posters introduce a continuing theme of the class, i.e., Life is a Game of Choices. The decisions of today determine our destiny tomorrow. The poster on the left centers on Murphy's Law: If anything can go wrong it will, and the worst possible thing that can happen will happen. People have little trouble identifying with Murphy. The other poster centers on the Success Road which is the other side of the coin, i.e., If anything can of right it will, and the best thing that can happen will happen. People have much more difficulty identifying with this philosophy.

Let me digress for a moment. Our first football game last September was an away game at Tillamook, the 6th ranked team in the state. The Estacada Rangers had won but one game the year before and I was in the process of instituting a completely new offense and defense. We were doing well for most of the game. In fact we were ahead mid way through the 4th quarter. They got the ball late in the game and tied the score with just :26 left on the clock. Demonstrating eternal optimism, I called a time out, went out on the field and gathered the defense around me saying, "All we have to do is block the extra point and go into overtime and win the game." Defensive tackle Collin Ferguson broke through and blocked the kick. But there was a flag on the field (did I mention this was an away game?) The Referee declared that the kick was NOT blocked and that the kicker was ruffed and there would be another try for point. Which they converted. What to do? I took the QB aside during the kickoff and called the only play I though had a chance for success. They proceeded to kick the ball out of bounds. We got the ball on the 35 and called the play. Well . . . the Tight End ran the wrong route which happened to pull the Defensive Safety away from the intended receiver. Neal Olson, the QB, eluded a would-be tackler and delivered the ball to Jeared Chapman who caught the ball and out ran the defenders to the end zone. We tacked on a 2 point conversion for good measure winning the game. If anything can go right it will and the best possible thing that can happen will happen. You can do everything wrong and still succeed if you have the right mental attitude. I can remember thinking to myself as I walked off the field, "How in the world can you ever top this?"

As Dickens said: It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Even though he wrote this over 100 years ago, it still applies. It will always be the best of times and the worst of times. It depends upon your focus, direction, and decisions. I read them the Niagara Syndrome from Anthony Robbins' book Awake the Giant Within. Success is an attitude. Winning is an attitude. It is all a state of mind.

5. Today we instituted "Good News WED." Several years ago I was on my way to watch son JJ wrestle at Snohomish, WA. I had a meeting to attend first, so I would meet my wife there.

It was a dark and stormy night, really wet (it does know how to rain in the great Pacific Northwest), really miserable, so miserable you could not see the lines on the road. I had the news on the radio . . . it was particularly depressing. People were being killed, banks robbed, women raped.

I thought to myself, "What if there were a radio station that had nothing but Good News?" I remembered Anne Murray's song, Sure could use a little good news today. On Wed we play the song and go around the room and everyone must share some good news in their life from the past week.

We do not share our good news stories much with each other. Bad news, sure! "Did you hear about Joe's accident? Ran off the road - totaled the car - lucky to be alive." That kind of news travels fast. Other news of a more positive nature might not make it around nearly as much.

We had good participation. Some examples of good news shared were:

being picked to play in the state's All Star Football Game

parents getting a new car

baby brother just learning how to talk

being able to dead lift 310# 5 times

landing a new, higher paying job.

An outgrowth of Good News Wed was our sports and activity revue newsletters. With the modern technology we have available to us, It is easier to publish a pictorial revue of sports and activities around school.

We had a class of 30 kids. Fifteen concentrated on clubs, organizations, activities, etc. of school. They would video tape or use the digital camera to capture the unfolding activities of school. They would transfer the pics to a publishing program like pagemaker and every other week would see positive news about the kids, activities and organizations of school

The other 15 kids would go around to the sporting events especially the Frosh, Soph, Junior Varsity as well as the varsity games. How often do you get to see the younger programs covered on a regular basis. Every other week you have a positive production featuring the youth of the community engaged in worthwhile activities.

If you school does not have the equipment to do this, consider the following. Hit up the business and professionals in the community - anyone who has a waiting room or line (Dr., dentist, lawyer, bank - anyone who would have counter space for a display). People while waiting for an appointment would rather see their children engaged in worthwhile activities while waiting than read outdated magazines.

Ask the business professionals to purchase the hardware/software needed and, in return, you would provide weekly positive news for distribution in their waiting room. The school's copier can be used and a folded, legal size piece of paper makes for a nice size.

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Copyright 1997-1998
by Roger A. Freeborn
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