As we are now well into August, I am hopeful that most of you are back at your institutions preparing for the fall athletic season. We encourage everyone to take recommended precautions to ensure the health and safety of you, your staff, and your athletes.
It has been an extremely eventful past 6 months. First, we experienced an unprecedented health crisis with COVID-19 which resulted in the closure of colleges and universities across the country. This had a major impact on our coaches’ ability to train their athletes. Many of you came up with creative ways to stay in contact with your athletes to encourage them to continue to train safely as much as possible.
Then we had to cancel the 2020 CSCCa National Conference and postpone the 20th anniversary celebration until the 2021 CSCCa National Conference. The 2020 Virtual CSCCa National Conference was developed in place of the in-person event to have been held in Orlando to provide our SCCC certified members with an opportunity to earn CEUs for maintaining SCCC certification as well as to provide an extended learning opportunity for all CSCCa member coaches as the virtual national conference provides all participants with 3-month access to over 16 outstanding educational presentations on a variety of relevant topics to the field of strength and conditioning coaching.
Not long afterwards, with the tragic death of George Floyd, many Americans took to the streets in cities across the country to protest racial discrimination and bias, demanding social justice for Black Americans. As stated in June, it is our sincere hope that this movement will result in much needed positive changes creating a stronger, more inclusive nation for ALL Americans.
We support and stand with our Black member coaches, and we are committed to making any and all necessary changes within the CSCCa to make sure ALL our member coaches feel valued, respected, and appreciated. With this goal in mind, the CSCCa Board of Directors has passed some resolutions to make the organization more inclusive and better able to meet the needs of our member coaches. We can and will do better.
Beginning with the 2021 CSCCa Board of Directors election in May, there will a guaranteed position on the CSCCa Board of Directors for an African American MSCC. In addition, the position currently held by Nate Moe from South Dakota State University will hereafter be a guaranteed position for a MSCC serving at a small school (Division 2, 3, or FCS).
We already have a guaranteed position for a female MSCC on the Board. We feel that guaranteeing these 3 board positions out of the existing 11 positions for specific groups will diversify and strengthen the Board of Directors and help the Board to be more cognizant and responsive to the specific needs of our member coaches.
We strongly encourage those who are interested in serving on the CSCCa Board of Directors to self-nominate, to reach out to other CSCCa members, and to let them know of your desire to serve on the Board. In an effort to create more participation in the voting process by our members, we will be providing biographical sketches for all individuals listed on the BOD ballot.
It is important to know that all MSCCs who are full-time coaches of a collegiate or professional athletic team are eligible to serve on the CSCCa Board of Directors, and we encourage more nominations and more participation in the voting process.
In addition, the CSCCa Board of Directors has passed a resolution creating a Black Strength Coaches Assembly that will allow any and all Black coaches who desire to do so to meet at the annual national conference each year. More information will be made available in the near future regarding the date, time, and location of the meeting. It is our hope that this Assembly will help the CSCCa to support and better understand the specific needs and concerns of our Black member coaches.
Please remember that the CSCCa is your organization and that the Board of Directors is committed to meeting the needs of ALL of member coaches. We have had a great deal of communication with many of our member coaches on a variety of issues, and we welcome this feedback.
Best of luck as we enter a new academic year and sports season!
