Student Athlete Summit

Sports are important in most high school careers. They bring communities together, create new friendships, and make team bonds that can last forever. The Western Class C Student Athlete Summit held annually in the fall is a chance to create bonds with other students from “rival-schools” in a friendly, non-competitive environment. This year’s summit was held at the beautiful  Saint Joseph’s College campus.

Eight students from each Class C school were chosen to participate in the Summit. The criteria for the people chosen were “student athletes that are current or future leaders on the teams” according to Waynflete’s Athletic Director, Ross Burdick, who heads up Summit Planning for the Western Maine Athletic Conference. The eight Waynflete students chosen to attend this year’s summit were Khalid Suja ‘17, Kiera MacWhinnie ‘17, Meddy Smith ‘16, Willy Burdick ’16, Mike Rodway ‘15 Phoebe Calvin-Oehmig ’15, Leigh Fernandez ‘14, and Serge Nyirikamba ‘14.

For the past four years, Ross has put activities together as a way for the students to get to know each other, as well as for students to have input into the sports programs at their home schools and to help their Athletic Directors. “We (parents) may think that sportsmanship or schedules are important, but really it should come from the students.” Ross says. In fact, one of the activities from the Summit was made into a pamphlet called “Sports Are My Thing”, a guide to parenting a child in sports.This Summit is going to move forward in the following years because it is essential to the student athletes and Athletic Directors. Ross says. “You get to hear and share ideas about leadership and how to be a leader within your team”