MN Daily: More training for UMN football team necessary to combat sexual assault

[BleedGopher]

per the Daily:

Newly-appointed head football coach P.J. Fleck has yet to meet with his team to talk about sexual assault prevention. He said he plans to discuss team-wide community outreach to tackle the issue.

The team will also engage in conversations with experts about consent, Fleck said. It’s the additional education, he said, that will help prevent sexual assault.

“[The players have] got to be able to do skits, they have to be able to role play,” Fleck said. “They have to be able to go through things and experience how it actually feels to talk through it.”

This isn’t the team’s first go-round with sexual assault and violence prevention training.

The team participated in a 2014 acting performance staged by GTC Dramatic Dialogues, a theater company that specializes in skit training on topics including sexual assault, racism and LGBTQ issues.

Audience members engaged in victim blaming, including football players, making it easy to pick team members out of the crowd, said Michael Agnew, owner and artistic director of GTC.

“…The football teams [nationally] tend to be the most vocal in those kinds of responses,” he said. “When we do a show where we know there’s going to be a large number of athletes, we know that we’re in for a wild ride. That’s pretty much just a given.”

http://www.mndaily.com/article/2017/02/gophers-football-team-more-training-to-combat-sexual-assault

Go Gophers!!

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Not a big surprise. Anytime this kinda stuff happens you get some response / training.

I don't know if it actually prevents anything.... but worth it for the PR.

It's just one of the things I wish Coyle & Co had talked about doing and been more proactive about in the wake of the events rather than... well I'm not sure what.

 

[Mulligan]

Not a big surprise. Anytime this kinda stuff happens you get some response / training.

I don't know if it actually prevents anything.... but worth it for the PR.

It's just one of the things I wish Coyle & Co had talked about doing and been more proactive about in the wake of the events rather than... well I'm not sure what.

Yep, especially in the aftermath of the basketball tape. I get it was consensual but I would think you use it to educate, or at least lay down the law. Maybe they did and these guys are slow learners.

 

[UpnorthGo4]

Yep, especially in the aftermath of the basketball tape. I get it was consensual but I would think you use it to educate, or at least lay down the law. Maybe they did and these guys are slow learners.

Here is what Pitino did in the aftermath of the basketball tape:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Gophers are slowly distancing themselves from one of the worst seasons in program history with better recruiting and a commitment to repairing their tattered image.

Their off-the-court problems don’t need repeating. The fallout put Pitino in the crosshairs, most notably with university President Eric Kaler, who issued a rebuke during the introductory news conference for Pitino’s new boss, Mark Coyle.

Kaler fumed that he was “profoundly disappointed in the continuing episodes, poor judgment, alleged crimes, and it simply can’t continue.”

Piercing words, but Pitino knew they weren’t wrong.

“We had some incidents where guys were acting irresponsibly and I have to take ownership of that,” he said. “It’s my responsibility. I brought those kids in. If they screw up, I’m not doing a good enough job.”

Pitino heard people calling for his job while noting that his massive buyout made it impossible to fire him.

“I just hated hearing that,” he said. “It made my skin so uneasy. But I get it. You win eight games and your guys get in trouble, you should not be praised.”

Pitino didn’t pretend his mountainous mess was a molehill. He showed self-awareness in realizing that the stain would not go away without substantive change.

“I haven’t done a lot in this profession as a head coach because I haven’t been a head coach for that long,” he said. “I didn’t have a lot to stand on. So I couldn’t sit there and say, ‘This is my track record, leave me alone.’ I’ve got to do something to teach these guys and improve the image of our program.”

His brainchild should be copied by every Gophers team. He created a program he calls Gopher PRIDE, which is a series of self-improvement initiatives that he cataloged in a manual. He keeps a copy on a table in his office.

Each player received the spiral manual at the start of summer school. The first two pages outline team rules, followed by class schedules and workout calendars.

One page contained a list of seven names — five boosters, along with Kaler’s and Coyle’s name. Each player wrote letters to those seven people — the boosters’ names were different for each player.

“Not necessarily apologizing,” Pitino said, “but just getting those people to understand that we understand the responsibilities on us.”

Pitino also organized weekly seminars. He started with former Gophers player Walter Bond, a motivational speaker who talked to them about the pressures of being a college athlete.

In another session, former Gopher John Thomas discussed the importance of being involved in the community.

One seminar focused on sex education. Pitino had contacted NFL star Larry Fitzgerald Jr., a Minneapolis native, looking for suggestions on an expert in that field who had spoken to his football teams.

Fitzgerald recommended an AIDS counselor his mother knew from Atlanta named Sandra McDonald, known as “Miss Mac.” McDonald has counseled NFL teams on a variety of sex-related topics. She visited the Gophers twice and still remains in contact with players.

“Our guys made mistakes, but we can’t throw them out to the curb,” Pitino said. “We have to love them and Miss Mac was awesome with that.”

Pitino also had his players meet with staff from the Aurora Center, a campus advocacy center for victims of sexual assault. The presentation covered different topics, including what constitutes consent.

One week, Pitino invited members of Target’s human resources department to talk to his players about hiring practices and how their tweets and public actions can affect future job prospects.

The final piece to PRIDE was a community service outing at Target Field in which the Gophers visited with underprivileged youth. Pitino’s players spent four hours playing and interacting with the kids.

“You could just see the guys growing as people,” Pitino said.

It would be naïve to think off-the-court problems won’t ever arise again. But Pitino should be commended for looking inward and taking steps to educate his players.

Cynics might view it as a PR attempt to calm the wolves. But Pitino hasn’t discussed details of his program publicly until now.

Read more at: http://www.startribune.com/turnarou...etball-program-began-off-the-court/409989965/

 

[hungan1]

Fleck will get the attention of the players plus we have lots of great alumni & pro home grown athletes not to mention Tony Dungy that can make meaningful impact on the players that a mandatory online class or presentation by an EOAA person cannot.

Guys like Richard Coffey, Walter Bond, Darell Thompson, etc...