Coaches earn recognition for 'Coaching Boys into Men'

During last year's football and cross country season male athletes learned not only how to throw a ball or run a mile but how to respect girls.

Le Mars Community Schools' Jim Boyd, head football coach and counselor, and Al Engebretson, head cross country middle and high school coach and a math teacher at LCMS, participated in a nationwide program "Coaching Boys into Men."

Boyd and Engebretson received a plaque and a $1,000 check last Tuesday from the Waitt Institute For Violence Prevention, in North Sioux City, S.D.

The check Boyd and Engebretson received went into the LCS activities fund.

"That was a way to publicly recognize Jim and Al and their boys for their participation and leadership in promoting and teaching young athletes in their awareness and abilities to prevent violence against women and girls in society," said Alan Heisterkamp, of the Waitt Institute For Violence Prevention.

"Coaching Boys into Men" was sponsored by the Family Violence Prevention Fund and the Waitt Institution for Violence Prevention.

A select group of schools including LCS were chosen to participate in the "Coaching Boys into Men" program.

Each school was provided with mini-lessons that were intended to give students something to think about in respecting women using scenarios they might experience, what would be appropriate response or behavior to make the situation better.

The lessons focused on talking respectfully, not engaging in locker room talk and not using physical size to intimidate smaller or weaker women.

Boyd used the mini-lessons by putting them where his players were sure to see the various scenarios and steps they could take to make the right decisions.

Engebretson also incorporated as many of the lessons as possible during practice.

"This was a key step into understanding more about a relationship between a coach and their athletes and the influence coaches can have on their athletes," Heisterkamp said.

The information gathered will be put into a proposal to secure grant money for an even larger study involving a bigger group of schools throughout the nation, Heisterkamp said.

"Jim and Al were cutting edge leaders in this area across the country," he said.

Even though the pilot program is over, Boyd said he plans to use the "Coaching Boys into Men" lessons next season because they are a valuable education tool.

"If we can influence our football kids, if we can teach them how to basically deal with girls and not abuse them, I think we better serve the boys and the girls," Boyd said.

He hopes the program will spread into other areas of the school.

"We have a lot of kids that don't have a father," Boyd said. "They're just not taught proper ways to treat girls."