It's been a difficult 14 months at Kentucky's Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), where Pleasure Ridge Park High School football player Max Gilpin died of heat-related complications after collapsing at a preseason practice last year and former Head Coach Jason Stinson was acquitted of reckless homicide and first-degree wanton endangerment in the death. But it's also been a time of intense introspection for the district, and out of that has come a proactive program designed to teach the art of positive coaching.

Several media stories after Gilpin's death described Stinson using forceful language to motivate players during practice, and telling them they would run until someone quit. JCPS Athletics and Activities Director Jerry Wyman says the new program, implemented this year, asks coaches to understand and embrace a coaching model that stresses character and role modeling. The initiative includes workshops, requiring coaches to develop a plan to exhibit positive coaching, and athletic directors holding coaches accountable.

"We have a motto in our district of 'Character First,' and that has been around for a while," says Wyman. "We wanted to go a layer deeper with our coaches about exactly what that means and lay out some expectations. We want coaches to teach character first, live character first, and leave a character-first legacy."

The program begins with a mandatory preseason workshop for all coaches. The workshop for fall coaches was held in July and there will be additional sessions in October and February for the coaches of other sports. It includes a 50-minute PowerPoint presentation on "Character First" and positive coaching principles, and videos on tactics for helping kids with adversity. The coaches also discuss the purpose of high school athletics during the workshop.

"The seminar is to help coaches think about going from ruthless tactics to more rigorous tactics--from using profanity, bullying, or threats to using positive reinforcement and creative ways of motivating kids," says Wyman. "For example, we don't promote saying, 'You are going to run until you drop, quit, or throw up.' Instead, we want coaches saying, 'We are playing this team and it's the fourth quarter. Who is going to last until the end?'

"We also talk about what it means to live character first and the line we use is, 'Values are caught, not taught,'" continues Wyman. "Student-athletes watch and learn from the way coaches discipline kids, react to a bad call, or deal with a parent who approaches them after a tough loss."

Following the workshop, each coach has to develop a plan to implement "Character First" values, which their school athletic directors will review and help them update throughout the school year. "The plan doesn't have to be overly detailed," says Wyman. "It might just be one sentence that grows as the year goes on. But we want coaches to think about one or two ways they can do a better job of promoting what we are about and preparing kids for when they get out of school and away from athletics.

"And we want them to involve their students in developing their plan," continues Wyman. "Next year when we do this, my goal is to have three or four coaches talk about what they did and how it impacted them and their students."

School athletic directors are also speaking frequently with their coaches about the program. "Without some follow-up, a coach can easily walk out of the presentation and then not think about the topic again until the season is over," Wyman says. "So we've asked our athletic directors to keep talking about it and to make sure coaches are thinking about it on a weekly or even daily basis.

"We're not expecting coaches to water down what they do," Wyman continues. "Discipline and conditioning are part of athletics. But there are other ways to motivate kids than negative comments, profanity, or bullying."

To read an article and commentary on the Stinson trial, look for the headline "Coach Acquitted" at: www.athleticmanagement.com/blogs.php.