Underwood hired to inspire GHS athletes to care for themselves

The Enterprise — Michael Koff

John Underwood speaks to about 800 Guilderland High School students on Tuesday.

GUILDERLAND — “Dutchmen Committed” is the new byword at Guilderland High School.

“It’s about understanding life choices — how much you sleep, what you eat, what you put in your body like drugs and alcohol,” said Superintendent Marie Wiles.

On Tuesday, John Underwood spoke to about 800 students, many of them athletes, in the high school gym. School was dismissed early, at 12:50 p.m. for the assembly.

Underwood, a wiry, intense man was introduced by Guilderland’s athletic director, Regan Johnson, who said Underwood had played high school sports in Johnstown and went on to be a state champion three times. A runner, Underwood works with Olympic athletes, professional sports teams, and the Navy, Regan said; Underwood had just returned from working with the Philadelphia Eagles and is scheduled later this month the University of Michigan and Ohio State University.

“The most overlooked aspect of reaching an elite level in anything is lifestyle,” Johnson wrote in a letter home to the parents, explaining the “Dutchmen Committed” initiative. “We are committed to giving our student-athletes the knowledge and assistance necessary to reach their elite level in life.”

“Student athletes should prepare themselves for life after sports,” Underwood told the crowd, stating that 2 percent of college athletes go on to play pro sports.

“He spoke for 90 minutes and I don’t believe he took a breath,” Wiles told the school board as it met on Tuesday night. She described the crowd as “energized” and said, “It was the kick-off event.”

The plan now is to get a committed group of students “across our student population to be leaders and take it forward,” said Wiles.

Wiles also reported that Underwood said, “Our group of students are some of the most respectful and attentive he’d encountered.”

Power of a parent

Wiles told The Enterprise that the new initiative came about because a parent spoke to the school board in April, concerned about student athletes using drugs. Julia Hotmer Drao, a senior investigator at the New York State Police, asked the board to put in place a volunteer drug testing policy for student athletes and gave board members William J. McIlmoyle’s paper, “Random Drug Tests for High School Athletes.”

“Advocates of random drug testing policies believe they will minimize the use of drugs and alcohol, at least among athletes,” writes McIlmoyle in his 2002 paper. “...Since the 1995 Supreme Court ruling that upheld drug testing for student athletes, these policies remain the exception rather than the rule in the country’s 15,500 public school systems...

“As a high school principal I have fielded requests for the development of a random drug testing policy for athletes. My response was not initially guided by research; I was opposed to the policy. My rationale was that once a student tested positive to the point that they were not allowed to participate, they would no longer have a coach who could be a positive influence in their life, and they would probably become more involved in the use of drugs and alcohol.

“Coaches responded that athletes that used drugs and alcohol were a negative role model for other adolescents, especially younger athletes, who would also be influenced by their strong desire to be accepted. Both arguments are persuasive; however, I began to see the coaches’ view as the greater good. More students would benefit if negative role models did not occupy a position of status in our school culture....”

“There are things that lead to heroin,” Hotmer Drao told the Guilderland board in April, referring to smoking marijuana or taking drugs from a parent’s medicine cabinet. “These things are happening in our schools.” She also said, “We need to help support our students when coping with peer pressure.”

“We took her words to heart,” Wiles told The Enterprise this week.

 

Underwood, Guilderland Central School District, Altamont Enterprise, Michael Koff
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
“Energized” is how the Guilderland school superintendent described John Underwood’s talk on a healthy lifestyle for athletes. School was dismissed early, at 12:50 p.m. on Tuesday, for the assembly.

 

Sheriff’s support

Underwood’s speaking fee — he agreed to $1,000, said Wiles — was paid for through Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple.

“I used drug asset money,” said Apple, which is seized when arrests are made.

“I was approached by a parent last year...talking abut athletes using drugs,” said Apple, who is up for reelection in the fall. That parent was Hotmer Drao. “She presented me with John Underwood,” Apple went on. “I never heard of John Underwood. I researched it and said, ‘Whatever I can do.’”

Apple stressed that he tries to spread the seizure money evenly to schools. He feels that spending it on a preemptive program is worthwhile.

“If we can keep kids captivated, educated, in school, we can keep kids off drugs, we can lower our prison population,” he said. “As corny as it sounds, we can make it a better place.”

Apple was impressed with Underwood’s talk on Tuesday and plans to have him speak soon to “a couple hundred local policemen.” Underwood has worked with other municipal departments, Apple said, dealing with “job fatigue.”

“Cops are under pressure, being shot at constantly,” Apple said. “This could help.”

Apple concluded on a personal note. “Let’s be real,” he said. “I drink probably eight cups of coffee a day. It doesn’t keep you alert. It really wears you down — your body just doesn’t know it.”

“Positive peer pressure”

In May, Johnson said, a group of eight students, all athletes, were committed to go to Underwood’s training camp in Lake Placid, but the camp was filled. Johnson said that this school year, a Guilderland group will apply earlier.

“We want this to be a school initiative,” he said, stressing that the program is not just for athletes. “There are definitely students not playing sports who are into improving their performance,” Johnson said. “Everyone’s invited...We’re looking for student to be the first generation.”

He said they have to care about performance and about doing things the right way. “We’ll be relying on high school staff and students who would like to carry that flag going forward.”

Johnson concluded, “I also want to know what parents think.”

Underwood has a “Life of an Athlete” website that outlines his philosophy. He says that athletes are more susceptible to using pot and alcohol than others and writes, “The systemic damage on hormones, heart, lungs, CNS [central nervous system] and brain must be understood and connected to loss of performance in actual capacities that athletes utilize to perform, in order for them to consider lifestyle changes.”

He also says, “We have studied for more than a decade the factors that can influence mental and physical performance in sport. Things like diet and sleep and blood glucose levels and stress and focus and alcohol and marijuana.”

On nutrition, Underwood writes, “The diet of athletes, today is appalling! Fast food and prefab meals have reduced our nutritional content to levels that do not support growth, performance or recovery.” He recommends a “power back diet.”

Wiles said of Tuesday’s session at Guilderland High School, “He said you lose 14 days of training from one [alcoholic] drink. He had a lot of examples and information. You work so hard on training and learning the game and then lose it at a party on Saturday night.”

The hope, at Guilderland, is to start with a small cadre of students committed to a healthy lifestyle and then have that group grow as the word spreads year by year, Wiles said.

She concluded, “The goal is for kids to think it’s cool to do the right thing....to lead others with positive peer pressure — not letting your team down, mentally and physically doing your best.”

Other business

In other business at its Sept. 15 meeting, the school board:

— Heard an appeal from Alan Fiero, a long-time middle-school science teacher, who said experienced teachers are being treated like Cassandra — in Greek myth, the prophetic daughter of the king of Troy — “who spoke the truth but no one believed her,” said Fiero.

“Shared decision-making has come to mean administrators make the decision and then share it,” he said, urging the board “to fully empower teachers”;

— Heard plans, from Wiles, for upcoming board meetings, including a discussion on inclusive education “to meet the needs of all students” on Nov. 17; focusing on high school curricula on Jan. 19; and learning about science evaluation on March 8;

— Heard from Wiles, “We’re doing a close analysis of available space,” looking at housing outside pre-kindergarten programs in empty school classrooms. The focus is on both unused classrooms and classrooms “we are currently using and don’t need to be using, and what are the implications of doing that,” said Wiles.

Board member Barbara Fraterrigo asked about analyzing space at the high school for incubator business start-ups, the board’s second choice for alternative use. “We’ll focus on pre-K with incubator start-ups percolating the background,” said Wiles;

— Discussed the policy on public participation at board meetings and most members agreed comments should routinely be kept to three or four minutes for each speaker;

— Accepted, on the recommendation of the board’s Audit Committee, the annual Internal Audit financial Risk Assessment Report Management Response and the Internal Audit Special Reports Corrective Action Plans.

The board agreed that the system in place was adequate to pay petty cash to reimburse bus drivers and bus attendants for meals when traveling outside normal work hours.

To address a shortfall of substitute teachers in the previous two school years — BOCES was unable to fill 130 teacher absences in 2012-13 and unable to fill 280 in 2013-14 — the board, in July, agreed to use non-certified teachers and to increase the pay by $10 a day, paying certified teachers $105 daily and paying non-certified teachers $95 daily.

On the Medicaid Compliance Audit, the district: set up a system to see that timely and accurate written orders and referrals are obtained; sends notices to providers who are not completing session notes as required; has improved record keeping; and assured, beginning in January, that a licensed master social worker was hired and began submitting valid Medicaid claims for reimbursement.

“We should talk more about the session notes,” said board member Christopher McManus, adding, “This is fine for now.”

“We’re beginning to collect the data,” said Wiles. “It’s complicated”;

— Approved internships with Sage Colleges in occupational therapy, and with the State University of New York at Cortland;

— Learned that three Guilderland students were selected for The New York State Summer School of the Arts — Andrew Dame on trumpet, Julianne Kim on violin, and Helen Yang on violin;

— Heard that Amy Salamone was named a New York State Educator of Excellence by the New York State English Council;

— Learned that Kathryn Mathews, for the second year in a row, was awarded a $1,000 Teaching Tools grant from The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association for teaching science, technology, engineering, or math; and

— Met in executive session to discuss strategies for negotiating with the Guilderland Administrators Unit and the Guilderland support Staff Unit.

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