Leader for the week

As a team we talk a lot about leadership and developing positive characteristics. One of our team rituals is at the beginning of each week select our "stage" leader All members of the team vote for a player who was the leader (or inspired them) the previous week. Its a pretty wide open question: players look at contributions to the team, citizenship, academics, and effort (among other things).

The leader of the week gets the yellow practice jersey. For our team this jersey is similar to being a stage leader at the Tour de France (ala the yellow jersey). They were, in fact, the leader of one stage in our amazing journey. I can think of no higher honor than having your peer group recognize you inspired them. In practice the "stage leader" wears the jersey with honor and pride.

The leader for our first stage was sophomore Conor Holton-Burke. Conor is a sophomore from Boulder, CO. Everyone that nominated Conor noted his effort in practice and the extra mile he goes to improve his game and help those around him. Besides being a workhorse on the court Conor is an amazing student. I've had players win the prestigious NCAA postgraduate scholarship, a Watson fellowship, a Fulbright, and the Trudeau scholarship. Although Conor is only a sophomore I would have to say he is the best student I've seen at Whitman. This is quite an accomplishment considering our team GPA has been over a 3.2 the past 10 years and the past six semesters over a 3.4!

Congratulations to Conor Holton-Burke.