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MORGANTOWN - August is here, and two-a-day practices abound for high school football teams across the region.
And soccer and lacrosse will compete with Friday night lights just a few weeks from now, when their respective fall schedules kick in.
What's a coach who is trying to wrangle everyone into a cohesive team - one with all the goal-building benefits of participating in organized athletics - to do?
Easy, Adam Henkins said.
Come out to University High School this week for a workshop by the Positive Coaching Alliance.
"Mastery: The Pursuit of Peak Performance" is the name of the session hosted by the organization based at Stanford University.
"Coaches have a powerful influence on the lives of young athletes," said Henkins, the director of Safe Schools and Athletics for Monongalia County Schools.
The gathering will go well beyond the win-loss record, he said.
"This workshop is about evidence-based strategies that will help coaches support athletic achievement and academic growth," Henkins said. "It's about creating environments where young people can thrive."
Which, he adds, is critical - since most high school athletes retire their team jerseys for good after graduation.
Positive lessons learned on the playing field, Henkins said, can translate to the classroom and the life to follow, Henkins said.
Meanwhile, he continued, Mon Schools teamed up with West Virginia University's School of Sport Sciences and the Russell "Bud" Bolton Center for Sport Ethics and Leadership for today's event.
Over the years, NFL luminaries Peyton Manning and Drew Brees had lent their voices to the event.
Earlier this summer, the same partnership enabled Don Nehlen High School Student-Athlete Leadership Summit, in honor of the coach who brought WVU's football program back to national prominence.