VTHS athlete leaders attend sportsmanship summit

VERNON — This winter, Vernon Township High School students were selected to attend the NJAC Sportsmanship Summit at Randolph High School, where they represented the whole Vernon community and received two more Sportsmanship Awards, which they added to the twelve banners already hanging in the school gym.

At the summit the students also listened to leadership speaker, Lee Rubin, explain the power the captains or leaders on a team can exert on their own teammates, school, and community. He spoke about important it is to stop the negative attitudes in school communities, including all the threats (other teams’ referees, etc. are not the enemies), bullying, harassment, and stereotyping. Rubin invited the students to discuss with him the three main components these students as leaders need to do: remember they have power, yet be responsible with it; show respect for cultures (not everyone is the same); and care for others.

After listening to Mr. Rubin’s speech the students broke off to smaller groups with other high school student athletes to discuss how each of them deal with leadership and all these issues in their high schools.

VTHS students believed they, as high school student/athlete leaders, are on a good path for good leadership.