TOWSON, Md. – Last month three members of the Towson University women's basketball team participated in a leadership workshop hosted by Athletes in Action. The AIA Women's Basketball Virtual Leadership Academy included 100 players from 25 different universities.
 
Seniors Tess Borgosz and LaKaitlin Wright, and junior Shavonne Smith represented Towson during the workshop. According to a release from AIA: the purpose of the academy is to equip, empower and encourage student-athletes to be competent, confident, effective team leaders.
 
There were several presenters during the academy including Ariel Atkins of the Washington Mystics and Mike Petersen from the Atlanta Dream. The student-athletes participated in workshops focusing on personal development and leadership mentality.
 
"It was about growing in your leadership and being confident in yourself, it was cool though," Wright said.
 
"In my opinion it was all about how we can grow as both a leader and a person," Smith said. "At one point we were talking about things we can add to our life to make us stronger mentally, like prayer, having a self identity, tools that we can use in life to grow as a person and a player and even impact other people."
 
There were two different sessions of the academy; Wright participated solo while Borgosz and Smith were on a separate weekend later on. According to the three, there were about 80 people in their sessions each time. Groups were split up for smaller work, and based on the student-athletes in their smaller groups, it might have been based on location and region.
 
"We started in a big group and then got split into different groups, in the group we would have our own little conversations," Smith said. "Then we would get back into the big group and there was a speaker who would talk to us or we would talk about the bigger discussion."
 
Several different topics were covered and explored as these women's basketball players learned about themselves and the kind of impact they can have on and off the court.
 
"Each person brought a different point they focused on," Borgosz said. "The first day they talked about self-talk and influence, following that were different topics but it was all about us growing. We built a personal development plan, where we wrote down obstacles and the plan of action, what you need to do to understand it, and being accountable so having someone who checks in. That was cool to figure out what direction you really wanted to head in, I liked that."
 
The AIA's release describing the activities for this academy explained the variety of sessions covering how to be a great teammates, conflict management techniques, case studies, communication lessons and interviews with leaders in sports and business.
 
"Really, for me, I think it was the leadership pyramid day," Wright said. "Breaking down how to connect with people, and I thought I was good at connecting with people, but some of the stuff I don't do well, and about being a follower first before being a leader. That all resonated with me because I feel like I can do it now because I know how to follow others and lead at the same time, so it gave me more confidence to do that."
 
Some other aspects were brought into conversation, such as faith, which struck a chord with these student-athletes.
 
"In particular I like how they talked about knowing your 'why' and also applying prayer in your life, because knowing why you do things can help push you when you're down," Smith said. "Remembering why I'm doing this and who I'm doing this for can really push you to the next level, and putting God first."
 
"I agree with Scoop (Smith), I really want to incorporate my faith into leadership and basketball," Borgosz said. "I found it really cool, because Ariel Atkins was on there and other players, they are bigger figures, but some of the stuff they went through I think we can relate to. I know it's not just my struggle per say, it's very common for other people, and a lot of these women went through it. So it was cool to see everybody does go through the same thing just in different ways."
 
These discussions went deeper than the surface as all the participants dug deep to understand themselves and their goals, and what they can do going forward to implement the strategies they learned.
 
"The issues on the personal development plan was…. scary; really made you think," Wright said. "You're figuring out why you are struggling with it and where are things to grow from it made me think a lot and hurt my feelings a little bit even, but I liked it."
 
Of course, these players along with the rest of the team are not physically together, but the student-athletes who went through the workshop are looking forward to returning to their teammates and putting the skills they learned to use.
 
"I think it will be better once we're back together," Borgosz said. "Trying to connect with people over text it's like 'okay cool,' but in order to resonate with people you have to have their attention."