At Albion College, more than half of the student population are athletes. With that comes navigating not only academics, but up to 20 hours a week of mandatory commitments to their sport.
Even before diving into the pool as an Albion College swimmer, South Lyon sophomore Sarah Kohler was already advocating for her fellow student-athletes through SafeSport, a nonprofit organization “committed to building a sport community where participants can work and learn together free of emotional, physical and sexual abuse and misconduct.”
Kohler, who serves as Albion’s director of athlete advocacy for SafeSport, said she began developing the SafeSport program at the start of the semester, guided by a belief that athletics are invaluable for young people.
“(Athletics) gives an environment where you not only learn discipline and consistency but grow your confidence,” Kohler said. Grosse Pointe Park junior, swimmer and diver Cameron Thompson said “SafeSport goes beyond your swimming pool or the field or your sport. It’s making sure you prioritize and advocate for yourself.”
Thompson added that being in SafeSport means athletes are protected from discrimination and harassment “on the court, off the court, in the pool, out of the pool.”
Albion College Women’s Soccer Coach Ron Rainey said that SafeSport has brought about awareness for not just coaches, but trainers and athletic staff as well.
“Now students have an avenue if they aren’t being treated the right way; they’re able to have advocates for them,” Rainey said.
South Lyon senior and Albion SafeSport executive board member Max Honiss said that SafeSport is “different for every sport and different for every athlete.”
Honiss added that for sports like wrestling, athletes are required to take tests involving topics like weight cuts and sexual assault to become USA-certified.
“If you’re also SafeSports certified, you could identify those areas and know what to do in those cases,” Honiss said. “If something horrible were to happen, you know what to do and how to handle the situation.”
The Integration of SafeSport at Albion
Athletic Director Jennifer Rushton said that other schools view athletics as an extracurricular, but at Albion, it’s a cocurricular.
“We really feel that this is a huge part of the learning process and their development,” Rushton said.
Kohler added that the cocurricular mentality is “being able to connect students with different resources, not only academically, but also counseling services and nutrition services.”
Within Rushton’s first days as director, she said Kohler approached her to discuss adapting SafeSport for Albion’s campus.
“I thought ‘this is really cool that a current student-athlete brought this to me with the desire to help close to 700 students,’” Rushton said.
Rushton added that Kohler later presented at a SAAC meeting and met with Albion Athletics staff to further advocate for SafeSport’s integration.
Kohler said that while staff and coaches have a unique responsibility to be involved in an athlete’s life to understand their performance, maintaining boundaries is important.
“It can’t cross the line to where an athlete has certain feelings of responsibility towards behaving for that coach,” Kohler said.
Being successful as a student-athlete depends on the level of care provided by the athletic department, Kohler added.
“Being an athlete is a big commitment in regards to time and balancing that kind of schedule,” Kohler said. “Being able to connect students with different resources is something that’s been really beneficial for student-athletes.”
Support Beyond the Field
As a coach, Rainey said he tries to keep out of his athletes’ personal lives. However, he also said one of his jobs is to “help the athletes, not just in their sport,” but academically.
Even during the off-season, coaches and training staff stay in touch with athletes, Rushton said.
“It’s ‘how are your classes, how’s your family?’” Rushton said. “(Coaches) try to make sure that overall, athletes are doing well.”
As a Division III school, Albion’s coaches are allowed 16 to 24 practices in the off-season, which Kohler said are supplemented with lifts.
Rainey said that in addition to lifts, he holds individual meetings with his players to ask about their campus experiences and share his thoughts or past experiences.
Rushton said that coaches themselves also strive to continuously coach and critique their athletes, but “do care about them as a whole person too.”
“You know, wins and championships, that’s a lot of fun and things that students remember,” Rushton said. “But what they’ll always remember is how their coaches made them feel and how they treated them.”
When coaches aren’t available, Honniss said that camaraderie between athletes on the team is what ensures athletes’ voices are heard.
“It’s ‘who’s going to be a leader, who’s going to decide to do the right thing and actually help maintain team culture when people aren’t looking,’” Honniss said.
The Future of Athlete Advocacy
As SafeSport and advocacy for the well-being of athletes on campus continue to evolve, Rainey said the future of the program lies in ongoing advocacy for student-athletes.
“In the end, if there’s something that can help the students balance their sport and school and help with mental health challenges, I think it’ll be awesome,” Rainey said.
Thompson said he hopes that SafeSport “becomes a very prevalent part of the culture, both the athletic and the academic.”
Along with hoping athletes feel supported during difficult times, Kohler said she’d like team captains to be able to strive for the SafeSport goal of maintaining a safe athletic space and aim to “provide good team culture and good team environment from the top down.”
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