Empowering Athletes with Tools for Accountability and Self-Reliance
We asked Los Medanos College Head Baseball Coach, Anthony D’Albora, to share his experience during the 11-week Sevwins Growth Mindset College League. What we got in return, was a powerful story that highlights the importance of routines, progress and coach-mentorship.
Los Medanos College participated in the Sevwins Growth Mindset College League along with five other college baseball programs including The University of Pacific, St. Mary’s College of California, Harvard, Taft College and Holy Names University. This 11-week challenge pitted the schools against each other to see which team could attain the highest growth rep completion percentage – what Sevwins calls Bell %.
From an outsider’s perspective, it’s easy to come to conclusions about which teams gave the most effort. But the numbers only tell a fraction of the story. Like all colleges and institutions across the globe, each dealt with varying levels of engagement between teams, athletes and coaches. While some had athletes on campus, others were remote with personal connection relegated to a smattering of virtual meetings.
Los Medanos College was one of the schools with very limited engagement. It’s a community college located in Northern California where student-athletes live off campus and spent most of their time learning online. On top of that, their ability to engage as a team during the pandemic was highly restricted.
We asked Head Coach Anthony D’Albora to provide Sevwins with feedback about his experience during the 11-week challenge. What we got in return was a powerful story that highlights the importance of routines, progress and coach-mentorship. Here’s his story:
This Fall, we noticed guys falling out of quality and repeatable routines more than in the past. Using the Sevwins app consistently helped us as we were able to evaluate and help guys find the best solution to get more out of themselves without the normal support and structure they are used to having.
One specific example was one of our Freshman who is rehabbing from an injury sustained in high school and will redshirt this year to get back to making pitches at 100%. He had structure provided by the coaching staff while we were off campus in the Fall, but without having daily, in person interactions he found himself unmotivated and underproductive. I noticed some of his inputs in his weekly reflections seemed unorganized and not as positive as I know him to be. After a series of calls discussing his struggles, we worked together to create a game plan to improve so he could get back to building on his successes.
We framed it all through the app, so that at the end of week 1 we could look back at his progression, evaluation and reflection and decide where he could make adjustments before creating goals for the next week. He saw very good improvement in week 1, but really by week 3 or 4 of our weekly check-ins we started to see sustainability in his output. He had a much more clear idea of what he wanted to do and what he needed to do to get it done.
When we returned to campus this past week he looked and sounded the part of a guy really in tune with himself. He carried himself as confidently as anyone else even though he's still a long ways away from being back to 100% physically. And more importantly, he was happy to be able to continue building on what he was working hard to create over the past month.
The best part of it all is we have the app journals to look back on it if he does ever find himself in a rut and be able to self-correct or adjust if needed. But I also think the app gave him an opportunity and forum to be open and honest with me without feeling like he had to admit defeat.
Anthony D'Albora
Head Baseball Coach