NFL's Play It Smart Program

About PLAY IT SMART

Grand Street Campus is Proud to announce they were chosen by the NFL as a site for its PLAY IT SMART Program. The program is scheduled to start in September of 2005.

For more than fifty-five years, the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame (NFF) has worked to fulfill its mission: "to promote the power of amateur football in developing the qualities of leadership, sportsmanship, competitive zeal and the drive for academic excellence in America’s young people."

In 1998, The National Football Foundation created PLAY IT SMART, an educational program targeted at kids from tough inner city environments where family and community support are generally lacking. The program, designed to take a student-athlete’s passion for sport and intense dedication to their team and transform it into a force for greater good in their lives, has exceeded everybody’s expectations. At less than a-dollar-a-day per student-athlete, the program has sent 87% of its participants onto college.

The Academic Coach and Springfield College
At the heart of the program is the PLAY IT SMART "academic" coach, equal parts mentor, advocate, counselor, teacher, coach and friend. Each academic coach receives special training and support from the National Football Foundation Center for Youth Development Through Sport (NFF Center) at Springfield College (Mass.), a leader in athletic counseling and sport sciences since 1885 and the only college offering a graduate program in athletic counseling.

The academic coach works with the kids for the entire school year — in ways their head coach can’t. The academic coach brings the kind of extra attention to the player's off-the-field development that most head coaches would like to provide if they had the time, training and resources. However, the head coach’s enthusiasm and support are essential to making each academic coach effective by giving him/her the same authority as the other assistant coaches.

Goal Setting and Positive Peer Pressure
It’s the academic coach’s job to turn each football team into a learning team, in the process lifting grades, SAT scores, graduation rates, community service participation and drug and alcohol awareness. Just like a backfield coach or a line coach, the A.C. is the head coach’s assistant who specializes in providing a continuing link to the academic side of school and the community. He helps the players establish individual and team goals in key areas such as GPAs, SAT/ACT scores, graduation and college enrollment.

Football is a team sport and players can count on the support of their academic coach and their teammates throughout the entire school year. In fact, an academic coach’s ability to capitalize on the positive peer pressure of the team is one of the key reasons PLAY IT SMART works.

Academic and Community Activities
The Academic Coach assists the head coach in establishing policies and procedures that will enable student-athletes to achieve their individual goals as well as to meet the goals of the program. Specifically, academic coaches coordinate academic support services, SAT/ACT prep classes, study halls, life skill sessions, field trips to area colleges and other team building activities throughout the entire school year. Academic coaches also meet one-on-one with each player, and often serve as their advocate with teachers, school personnel, parents and guardians.

Each year, academic coaches and players also "give back" to their communities during after-school activities by working in soup kitchens, retirement homes, orphanages and churches — or by serving as peer mentors, teachers and coaches for local youth groups and Special Olympians. Through this valuable work, players gain a sense of pride in themselves and their communities. These activities create opportunities for participants to test their leadership and organizational skills outside of sport while gaining confidence in their futures.

Throughout the year, academic coaches challenge players to set their sights high and plan for the future. Whether by helping select a college, write a resume, conduct a job search or plan a campus visit, academic coaches equip students with the skills and the confidence they need to take the next big step beyond high school.

Tapping Local and National Resources
The academic coach monitors the student-athlete’s progress and guides them to resources that will help them achieve these goals. The A.C.draws from the expertise of the program’s senior "life skills" advisor, Dr. Albert Petitpas, who heads the graduate program in athletic counseling at Springfield College and serves as the director of the NFF Center for Youth Development Through Sport. The Academic Coach also taps the local resources of the NFF chapter and other adults in the school and the community to help his/her players meet their goals. Local NFF Chapters and their members play an important role in the success of PLAY IT SMART within their regions. Chapters fulfill the following responsibilities: