Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy Journal - University of Cincinnati Official Athletics Site

UC women's soccer senior Ashley Roush has been selected as a junior staff member at the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy. The six-day residential academy for girls ages 12-18 takes place from June 25-30 at the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J. The focus of the academy is to provide young women with the passion of being a leader on and off the field. Ashley will be checking in with UCBearcats.com via a daily journal. Check back each day as she shares her experiences.

Sunday, June 25

The first day of the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy was exciting and naturally exhausting. The campers were all registered by 4 today and then we had a meeting, where Julie Foudy introduced all of her staff and talked about the philosophy of the academy, that life is a series of choices...Choose to matter.

We played soccer for about an hour with the kids. Doing demos for the kids along side of Julie, Carla Overbeck and Tiffany Roberts, was inspiring.

We ended our night with some ice breaker exercises to get the campers to all know each other. We then watched some short clips about Title IX and vital voices which is a documentary about Vital Voices which started about eight years ago, and joins women who are in leadership positions from all over the world to this conference and then they take back to their countries what they learned and help guide other women into leadership roles. Because of this there have been five women presidents throughout the world and many more women becoming involved and active in male-dominated positions.

My favorite quote from the documentary, "Create opportunities not just for ourselves, but for others to follow."

Day 2 to follow...........catch ya on the flip side.

Monday, June 26

Day 2 in the life of a junior staff member at the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy in Hightstown, New Jersey!

[TEAM was the focus of the day, and the theme of the day is that leadership is not earned simply by a "title" but by the actions one takes both on and off the field. Just having a title of "Team Captain" or "Class President" does not necessarily make one a leader. One has to earn the respect of others before they can "lead" and that respect is earned through the positive actions one takes both on and off the field, in the classroom, and within their respective community. Before one attempts to lead others one needs to be able to lead one self.] ~taken from the curriculum notebook of the camp! Not my words!!

Personally today I felt that the leadership activities that we did today were phenomenal. To begin our afternoon session we had Jeff Janssen, M.S., who is "one of the nation's premiere Peak Performance Coaches. He helps coaches and athletes develop team chemistry, mental toughness and leadership skills. He has written several novels, and started the Carolina Leadership Academy and the Stanford Leadership Academy. Maybe UC can try and jump on that bandwagon!! Anyways, he had the entire camp go through three team building exercises to gain all of those things such as communication, leadership and team chemistry. The first exercise was called the Human Knot, where your group is in a tight circle and you join hands with someone else in the circle and then try to untangle your group without letting go of each other's hands. Unfortunately my team (Australia) did not finish within the allotted time but I do give them mad props for the way they came together and communicated! The second exercise was called the Balloon Train, where each team stands in a single file line with balloons placed between their belly button and the back of the other teammate in front of them. One rule is that your hands can not touch the balloon at any time. Point of this exercise is for the team to move collectively forward passing the first cone for 2 points and the last cone for 10 points within a certain allotted time. Australia (my team) did beautifully in this one earning a solid 32 points. Way to go Aussieroos!!! The last exercise was first called Mine Field exercise but since we have 2 girls from Afghanistan here at the camp, Ian Sawyers (Julie Foudy's husband), decided that we had to change the name to something more appropriate so it was changed to, Dodge the Cones. This consisted of each team splitting in half and one half are the "coaches" and the other half are blindfolded and have to walk through a maze of cones blind. Only the coaches can help them to reach the end by giving clear and concise instructions. My girls tried really hard on this one and it was great to see who was better at coaching and giving advice and vice versa. The girls really seemed to enjoy these activities and I think in many ways it helped our afternoon soccer session that followed these exercises. If interested in learning more about Jeff or what he does please feel free to check out: www.jeffjanssen.com

During tonight's leadership meeting, we watched the documentary "Emmanuel's Gift" which follows a guy who was born in Ghana and was disabled because he was born without a shin bone.

[If you are born disabled in Ghana, you are likely to be poisoned, or left to die by your family, and you are destined to spend your lifetime begging on the streets. Of the twenty million people in Ghana, two million are disabled. This is the story of one disabled man whose mission-and purpose- is to change all that forever. In Emmanuel's Gift, filmmakers Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern have uncovered a story as compelling as it is important. Narrated by Oprah Winfrey, the film chronicles the life of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, a young Ghanaian man born with a severely deformed right leg, who today, against incalculable odds, is opening minds, hearts and doors-and effecting social and political change throughout his country. While Emmanuel's message is vital: people with disabilities are valuable contributors to any society, his method is inspirational. Emmanuel begins his quest with a bicycle ride, over 600 kilometers, across Ghana with one leg-and continues to spread his vision with grit and resolve. Lisa Lax and Nancy Stern have been documenting Emmanuel's plight for over a year, having shot over 100 hours of powerful imagery. The film includes original footage shot in Ghana, California, Oregon and New York, as well as photographs and other acquired film/video of Emmanuel's early years. Through it all, they have created an intimate insight into the mind and heart of a visionary whose unforgettable journey transcends continents and cultures and becomes each of ours to share.] ~This synopsis comes from www.imdb.com.

It's an incredible documentary, you'll cry and you'll just feel for this guy who went against all odds and did something not only for himself but for everyone in his country. It really makes you wonder and think about what you can do, even if it only helps just one person, because maybe in all hopes that one person will then continue to help someone else and then another and so on, as the camp motto says: "LIVE, LEAD AND PASS IT ON." *Rent this documentary* It will put everything into perspective and maybe when you think about Emmanuel and his struggles or the struggles that those two Afghanistan girls have had to go through, maybe a little rain or a bad day just won't really matter.

Till tomorrow for Day 3 I leave you with this quote from Emmanuel himself:

"I WANT TO CHANGE PERCEPTIONS AND THE WAY TO DO THAT IS TO LEAD BY EXAMPLE"

Tuesday, June 26

Day 3 in the life of a junior staff member at the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy! hehe

The theme of the soccer part of the day was defending and attacking as a team. For the demo of the transition game, I played defense right next to Carla Overbeck who won a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics and a white gold medal(as Julie would say!!) in the 2000 Olympics, and played on the National Team for 14 years and was captain for over half that time. It definitely was incredible to be playing next to one of only 5 women ever inducted into the United States Soccer Hall of Fame. Especially since Julie and Tiffany Roberts were our forwards, haha not a bad group to demo with!! When someone like Carla told me to step or pressure inside I definitely ran faster than I ever have before!! Julie and Tiffany both have said that she is not only the best defender but the best leader they have ever played with.

For our first leadership segment of the day, Robin Roberts (keynote speaker) came to talk to us about how she has succeeded in becoming a journalist, anchor and sportscaster all of which is usually male-dominated. She talked to us about how she always knew that she wanted to be a sportscaster for ESPN, and what she had to go through to achieve that goal. Currently she is third anchor for Good Morning America. When I found out that she would be our keynote speaker, I was really excited to meet her, because I remember watching a segment that she did on the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, when she traveled back to her hometown in Mississippi that was just completely destroyed. It really had an emotional impact on my roommate Marie Strelka (my favorite former player at UC!), and I. Her speech was great, telling us how she got a scholarship to play basketball at Southeastern Louisiana University, and graduated cum laude with a degree in communications. She is still only one of three players to score 1,000 career points and grab 1,000 career rebounds. One of her best quotes of her speech was "Think big, but focus small." She knew that she wanted to be on ESPN but she knew she had to do the little things first that would someday help her to achieve her dream. Early in her career she had an offer to work for ESPN but she knew that she was not ready and so she turned down her dream job, in order to prepare herself more, so when that time came again she would be ready. I think that takes so much courage and strength, and all out dedication to your dreams to not just jump at the chance but to wait until the time is right. Funny story about her speech: throughout her speaking many campers were taking pictures of her, which was great but she was in the middle of one of her stories and she was like oh wait she's taking a picture so she stopped talking and posed for her and it was hilarious. You probably had to be there to get the real gist of it but it was funny. Julie said that what you see is what you get when it comes to Robin Roberts. Julie told us that when she first asked Robin if she would come speak at the academy, right away she said yes and asked if she could give 5 scholarships. It just shows what an amazing woman Ms. Roberts is and her dedication and love for all sports and the athletes. You can find more information about her accomplishments on www.juliefoudyleadership.com.

After Robin was done, the two girls from Afghanistan that I had mentioned in yesterday's journal entry, took the stage to tell us about their lives. This is when we all found out that 18 year old Shamila and 16 year old Roia, were being presented the annual Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the Espy Awards show on July 16. They are receiving this award because of their participation in the post-Taliban soccer leagues in Afghanistan. Shamila told us that while the Taliban was in rule, women were not allowed to leave their homes, but if they did they would have to wear the burquas (robes that covered their bodies from head to toe), and were followed and harassed by the Taliban constantly. Now in post-Taliban rule, they are able to play the sport that they love often on fields right next to the places where some of their family members and friends had been killed. In the summer of 2004 as part of the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange they came to the U.S. to participate in soccer clinics and then they returned to Afghanistan and taught other girls what they had learned here. Because of their knowledge and leadership there are 15 teams, with girls ranging from 12 to 18 years of age. If you aren't crying by now listen to this story from their speech, when Julie was thanking them for all that they had done in spreading soccer and their courageous efforts, Shamila stopped her and said, "This is not because of us but because of you and what you have done." All of us in the crowd had to hold back tears, when that happened, it was definitely an emotional moment. We then all stood up and gave them a round of applause, and Shamila and Roia, didn't know what to do so they stood up as well and started clapping, it was a great end to a great session. To read more about the courageous efforts of Shamila and Roia, they are currently featured in Glamour magazine and on espn.go.com/espy2006.

By the way, from yesterday's entry, Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at last years Espy Awards.

I leave you with this quote from Rosa Parks:

"You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right."

Till next time, I'll catch ya on the flip side! J

Wednesday, June 28

Day 4 in the life of a junior staff member of the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy!...

I think the best part of the day was our professional panel that came to speak to us. The panel included:

Christine Brennan--USA TODAY columnist, author and has done commentating for the past six Olympics on ABC.

Carol Blazejowski- General Manager of the NY Liberty of the WNBA, Hall of Famer in basketball

Lucy Danziger- Editor in Chief of SELF Magazine

Kathy Carter- Soccer United Marketing, they handle all of the marketing and advertising aspects for MLS, all of the national teams both men and women and all the different age levels.

Aimee Mullins- Incoming President of the Women's Sports Foundation, disabled sprinter, paralympian, actress, and model.

The panel was amazing, just a really great group of women who have used sports and what they've learned to excel professionally in their careers. Carol and Christine talked a lot about growing up in the early 60's and having to play with all boys, since there were no girls teams available. Not until Title IX was passed in 1972, when they first got into high school were they able to play on an organized women's team. The last thing that Christine left us with was to have fun and take every opportunity that sports and life brings to us but also to be aware of how we are able to do all of this as women and to realize that TITLE IX has given women in this country so much, and that currently the Bush Administration is trying to reverse the progress of the policy that has helped women and girls have opportunities that many of our mothers and grandmothers never had. My mom, the wonderful woman that she is, emailed me a website that you can go on and view a little movie about what Bush and his administration are trying to do, and sign a petition to stop it from happening. Like Christine said we have to make sure that girls 15 years from now still have the same opportunities that Title IX has given to all of us. Please check out the website to view a little video and to sign the petition and please tell others to sign it as well.

www.titleix.info/content.jsp?content_KEY=1810&t=savet9_campaign.dwt

PLEASE CHECK IT OUT AND SIGN THE PETITION AND PASS IT ON.

LIVE AND LEAD AND PASS IT ON!!!

This journal entry will continue later...sorry but I have to go..Julie runs a tight ship around here!! Hehe J

Till next time, I'll catch ya on the flip side!

Thursday, June 29

LAST DAY IN THE LIFE OF A JUNIOR STAFF MEMBER OF THE JULIE FOUDY SPORTS LEADERSHIP ACADEMY!!!

Sorry this one is going to be short as well, since I have to get all the campers out of the dorms, and we have a staff meeting which will probably be a four-day nap!!! This morning we had our teams play world cup 8v8. My team (Australia) went 1-2-1. We played great, scoring goals and playing as a team. Everything that we have been teaching the girls all week with communication, supporting and team chemistry really showed today. England won in our division and Brazil won in the other division. Taniya, a girl from our team, won the coveted GOLDEN BOOT AWARD, for the best all-around camper who portrays leadership qualities on and off the field. Erin and I nominated her because throughout the week she has been encouraging her teammates, helping them with issues that they have had off the field, and the way that she just wants to learn and improve not only for her but for the rest of the team. She is a wonderful listener and she communicates what she has learned to her teammates on and off the field. Her trophy was a shoe that Julie used to wear and it is signed by the entire National Team. Not too shabby!! Alright well I have to go help move the wee ones out, but check back in here Monday because I will have one final journal entry that will reflect on everything this past week.

"To dream anything you want to be - that is the beauty of the human mind.

To do anything you want to do - that is the strength of the human will

To trust yourself to test your limits - that is the courage to make a difference."

~unknown

"If you think that something small can't make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in the room."

~unknown

Hehe love that second quote!!!

Till Monday, I'll catch ya on the flip side J J J