Academy Hill Students Spend Three Days at Elms College Learning About Collegiate Athletics

CHICOPEE, Mass. – A group of five students from the Academy Hill School recently spent three days at Elms College learning about playing sports in college and what it takes to put a winning team on the field.

Located in Springfield, Mass. Academy Hill’s mission is to provide a challenging, safe, caring, respectful and flexible learning community for children who show early signs of exceptional ability in academics, creativity and/or leadership in order to stimulate them to achieve their full potential.

During the three-day visit, the group visited with coaches, athletic trainers, health personnel, and other members of the athletic department to learn about the various skills these people need to do their jobs. The idea was brought to Elms by former women’s soccer player Shannon Schickler ’10 who contacted head athletic trainer Mariann Ingraham about the possibility of setting up the event.

Various activities included learning about the college application process, lifeguarding and swim lessons, filling out recruiting questionnaires, going through a strength and conditioning program, competing in intramural games, getting ready to start a season as a member of a team, CPR and First Aid, game management, stocking training kits, team building exercises, partaking in an ethics class and meeting with student athletes.

As part of the process of becoming a student athlete involves having a headshot taken for display on the athletics website, the Academy Hill students also had their headshots taken in the same fashion as seen below: