Today, every Y across the country, and even the world, is
united by three common pillars: Youth
Development, Healthy Living, and Social Responsibility. What exactly does this mean for ANA Synchro? What does it mean for any team competing
under a Y banner? In this first part of
a three-part series of posts, ANA Synchro talks to Alex Turek, Executive
Director of the Andover/North Andover Y, about what it means for ANA Synchro
athletes and families that the Y is so focused on Youth Development:
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| Alex Turek, Executive Director of the Andover/North Andover YMCA, home base of ANA Synchro. |
Alex Turek (Executive Director):
The three pillars – Youth
Development, Healthy Living, and Social Responsibility – really encapsulate all
that we do here at the Y. I often think
of modeling and reinforcing the four qualities of caring, honesty, respect, and
responsibility as what we do for youth specifically. There are a lot of different things within
each of those four qualities that we teach every day in all our Y teams and programs.
ANA Synchro:
Why should a parent or an athlete care that
the Y and ANA Synchro have a focus on Youth Development?
Alex Turek (Executive Director):
When a program like ANA
Synchro, or any of our teams for that matter, constantly works on developing
those four qualities in young athletes, I think you get a lot more out of the youth
sports experience. Kids and families
might look at belonging to the team as just an activity where their kids do
synchronized swimming, but the goal of the Y is much bigger than that. Of course we want them to reach their full
potential and compete at a national level, but we also want to develop the
whole athlete. We want to build their
self-confidence and set the stage for lifelong wellness through physical
activity. We don’t want them to
burn-out, we want them to learn to compete intensely and professionally with respect
for other athletes, and we want them to learn the importance of winning as a
team. This is not to say, of course,
that you can’t get the same experience anywhere else, but I believe that we
here at the Y are more intentionally focused on it.
ANA Synchro:
How does the Y do this? It seems complicated enough just to teach the
skills for a sport and manage the competitions.
Alex Turek (Executive Director):
It’s a combination of
hiring the right people, training them the right way, and providing them with
resources they need. When you do all
that, you can expect great things.
ANA Synchro:
And you’ve just hired Leah Pinette, former
captain of the US National Team!
Alex Turek (Executive Director):
Yes! And I’m excited for our direction. Knowing what Leah has done just in these
first couple months, and seeing how she interacts with the athletes, families,
other coaches and staff, I’m confident that our ANA Synchro team will grow and
achieve great things. Leah is a coach
who understands the concept of developing the whole athlete.
ANA Synchro:
What do you mean when you talk about training
for the coaches? It seems like they know all they need to know
about the technique of the sport.
Alex Turek (Executive Director):
I’m interested in helping
all our coaches understand a little bit more about positive youth development. It’s something we talk about a lot and even
include as goals for individual coaches.
Plus, I’m researching some training programs specific to positive youth
development – not just for synchro, but for all the Y coaches. I’d love to see this as being part of what
the Andover Y does for our own coaches and maybe even what the Merrimack Valley
Y does for all youth sports coaches in our area.
ANA Synchro:
Why are you so interested in this? Is it just because of the national Y
directive to be for Youth Development?
Alex Turek (Executive Director):
That’s part of it certainly. But I’m also a coach myself! I went to school for it, and I coach
basketball today. I’m also a parent of
young kids who want to play sports. So I
naturally concern myself with these issues and how youth sports coaching can
continue to advance. I see how my own
kids are treated as athletes and how our kids here at the Y are treated as
athletes. And I want to be doing the
best we can to arm our coaches with the knowledge and tools to provide a
positive youth sports experience for these kids.
ANA Synchro:
Do you think you sacrifice anything,
competitively, to maintain this focus on developing the whole athlete?
Alex Turek (Executive Director):
Absolutely not! The best athletes are well-rounded and
balanced people – not those who compete at any cost. ANA Synchro has a long history of participating
and competing at the national level, and that’s not going to change. Leah and I both believe that the relationship
between being competitive and developing the whole athlete is very strong and
can’t be separated. We believe we can
absolutely have high-performing, but well-rounded athletes who care about the
people around them and who are going to be well-adjusted adults. That’s the ultimate goal – to develop kids to
be strong people both in and out of the pool.
For more information on Leah Pinette and the coaching staff at ANA Synchro, click here: http://anasynchro.org/coaches/index.php
ANA Synchro is the competitive synchronized swimming team of the Merrimack Valley YMCA’s Andover/North Andover Branch. To visit the ANA YMCA’s website, click here: http://andover.mvymca.org/ANASynchro
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