Penn Hills basketball team kicks off Coaching Boys into Men program

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, October 7, 2017 | 12:33 AM

High school sports aren't always about success on the field or court. They're also about developing athletes as individuals.

The Penn Hills athletic department is putting a major emphasis on the latter aspect this year as it introduces the Coaching Boys into Men program, which is set up through Pittsburgh Action Against Rape.

Penn Hills athletic director Stephanie Strauss, with the help of boys basketball coach Dan DeRose, discovered PAAR's program and had Bernie Colbert, a PAAR educator and Carnegie Mellon assistant football coach, host a seminar for the boys basketball team Sept. 26.

Strauss has plans to get all of the boys teams at Penn Hills, including the football and track and field teams, involved in the program.

“I wanted to start getting involved in some programs that I could do outside of coaching. It won't just help in basketball but in life,” DeRose said.

“As coaches, we have the power to influence kids or have kids look up to us as role models and to educate them in other things outside the sport that we coach.”

Coaching Boys into Men, according to its website, is a leadership program that works toward sexual violence prevention. The program is tailored toward athletes in college, high school and middle school and looks to build safe and healthy relationships.

Pittsburgh Action Against Rape was founded in 1972 by the Pittsburgh Chapter of the National Organization of Women and has the mission to respond, educate and advocate to end sexual violence.

“Anybody who follows sports understands and sees a lot going on with domestic violence, sexual assault and sexual harassment,” DeRose said.

“This program is teaching these young boys how to respect women. We are brought up as the alpha male where women are so inferior to us.”

After the initial seminar, the coaches are responsible for addressing different lessons each week with the players on their team during their practice time.

The different topics include personal responsibility, insulting language, online behavior, understanding consent, aggression and dating and respect.

“The program is to try to get the boys to understand it's wrong but not only is it wrong but to stop other people from doing it,” DeRose said.

“I think the good thing about the program is it doesn't matter what type of kid you are or what race you are. This pertains to everyone.”

DeRose also is looking to establish People Understanding Police, a program used to instruct high school students how to act around the police. DeRose is in the early stages of planning how Penn Hills police can instruct students about police protocols and the different scenarios students could encounter.

DeRose believes Coaching Boys into Men is a program all high school coaches should review as an avenue to better educate their athletes and prepare them for adulthood.

“It's a program that I think every coach should take a look at and to try to help out the kids,” he said. “We have to start taking action.”

Andrew John is a freelance writer.

Tags: Penn Hills