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NCAA president to headline panel

Every year, athletes and coaches toss around words like “leadership” and “chemistry” in an attempt to achieve the intangible factors that turn a good team into a great one.

For North Carolina, the vague generalizations have been condensed into a science.

A year ago, Director of Athletics Dick Baddour created the Carolina Leadership Academy in an effort to provide leadership instruction for UNC’s athletes.

To mark the anniversary of the program’s inception, NCAA President Myles Brand will speak today at 5 p.m. in Koury Auditorium at the Kenan-Flagler Business School and then participate in a roundtable discussion on college athletics. The panelists include Chancellor James Moeser, ACC Commissioner John Swofford and former UNC President Bill Friday. The event is free and open to the public.

In the 12 months of the academy’s existence, the results have not yet become visible on the field, but athletes and coaches concurred that the program has had positive effects.

“Talking to students, coaches and staff, (Baddour) perceived a need that we had to actually work on leadership, that it doesn’t happen by itself,” said senior associate athletic director John Blanchard, who implemented Baddour’s plan in setting up the Academy.

Blanchard secured the private funds necessary to hire leadership guru Jeff Janssen, who has worked with groups from sports teams to Fortune 500 companies.

Then Janssen went to work with the teams, and though the jury is out on whether his efforts will dramatically improve UNC athletics on the field, players and coaches seem to be on board.

“I feel that this is the future, a tremendous investment of the money,” said women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance. “It was a stroke of genius on the part of Dickie Baddour.”

For years, Dorrance had been conducting his own leadership seminars with his rising seniors in the spring. But with the professionalism of Janssen added to the mix, Dorrance saw more results than he had been able to achieve on his own.

“What I’ve seen is a wonderful maturation in our leadership,” Dorrance said. “In a lot of ways, the leaders I’m addressing issues with are very mature.”

Blanchard agreed that the program has helped greatly in athlete development, even in only one year.

“I can see it in a lot of different areas,” Blanchard said. “In the way students and coaches are communicating, in the way our teams have handled adversity … maturity amongst our leaders.”

The academy is split into three parts. To start, freshmen participate in seminars to focus on self-leadership.

A second program identifies sophomores and juniors who are among the best players on the team and works with that group to foster leadership by example. Finally, team captains are taught methods of outspoken leadership.

“From that first presentation you could see that they put a lot of effort and resources into it,” said junior men’s lacrosse player Dave Werry. “They are really trying to bring an awareness for athletes in how (leadership) can affect the team atmosphere.”

The academy is both elaborate and innovative. The program is the first of its kind in the nation, and Blanchard said he thinks the trend could spread to other schools, adding that Jannsen had just returned from meeting with officials at Stanford University.

“Most people are doing leadership by doing one or two seminars,” Blanchard said. “We have really gotten way out ahead of everyone else.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.

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