Center Valley, Pa. -- With the start of another school year just around the corner, sports teams across the region are gearing up for a new season of high school athletics. As team coaches start planning for physical conditioning, more than 50 of the area's most promising high school athletes also will add a dash of S.A.L.T. to their training regimens during a program offered by Penn State Lehigh Valley Athletics. The program, Student Athlete Leadership Training (S.A.L.T.), now in its second year, will be held from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 2, in room 135 at the campus in Center Valley.
S.A.L.T. is an intensive one-day course designed to enhance the inherent leadership skills of student athletes and instill the importance of developing a culture of respect and responsibility toward others. Included in the course are activities that cover leadership characteristics, communication, conflict resolution and team building.
"We are excited to offer this program as a resource for athletes and coaches again this year," said Rich Fatzinger, coordinator of athletics at Penn State Lehigh Valley, who developed the program. "The students accepted into S.A.L.T. have been identified as leaders both in their sports and in their schools. The skills discussed on Tuesday aim to help them be successful both in sports and in life."
In addition to the on-campus day of training, all of the participants will become part of the S.A.L.T. Facebook page, an online resource maintained by Penn State Lehigh Valley that will allow the athletes to stay connected with each other, share concerns and create new ideas.
Scheduled participants in S.A.L.T. represent teams from the Lehigh Valley Conference, the Mountain Valley Conference, Schuylkill Valley Conference, and the Colonial League, and include Allentown Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic, Catasauqua, Easton Area, East Stroudsburg South, Emmaus, Freedom, Liberty, Lincoln Leadership Academy, Nazareth, Northampton, Pocono Mountain West, Stroudsburg, Tamaqua Area, and Whitehall high schools.