West Covina High School has a wide variety of clubs and leadership classes that students can join to spruce up their college applications. Being a part of leadership lets colleges know that the student is responsible and they have leadership qualities. ASB, Renaissance, and Link Crew are examples of well-known leadership options, but there’s a new leadership class, Athletic Leadership Committee (ALC).

ALC is a leadership class exclusively for junior student athletes. There are three main reasons the class is exclusively for juniors. 

“First, junior year seems to be the year when there is more room in the students schedule for a leadership. Seniors tend to lose motivation in their sport at the end of the year and third, this class helps build skills in the students junior year and prepares them for their senior year,” said ALC advisor Jason Heilman.

“There are three main goals that I want my students to learn from this class and that is to promote all sports, encourage athlete retention, and build individual leadership skills,” continued Heilman.    

Student athletes gather during 4th period every day to learn leadership skills that can be applied in life situations and in their sport. This is ALC’s third school year as an operating leadership class. 

ALC students are given the lead in the classroom in order to build leadership skills like assigning each other roles in order to set up for events. They come up with ideas to inspire and support other student athletes.  

This year’s class of ALC students came up with the idea to pick three “sports buddies” every sports season to support. Leaders go to their sports buddies’ games, visit them in class with a treat and a good luck quote before their game, and write a short letter to them when their season comes to an end.

Students who are underclassmen or in JV sports tend to give up on their sport. It is ALC’s goal to minimize the number of students who quit their sport. ALC has organized a number of events recognizing student athletes.   

They have hosted two sports banquets for fall and winter sports athletes and are currently discussing and planning one for spring sports. The banquets provide food, entertainment, and awards are given to students who may not be otherwise recognized. 

Athletic leadership is a class made up of 19 students. Not a lot of people know what the class is for or what they do. ALC is always looking for ways to help the school’s student athletes, and they are currently working on winning a $2,000 grant for sports in need, including golf, swim, baseball, wrestling and basketball. 

Athletes and coaches reached out to ALC with a list of their needs and reasons they should win the money and the leaders helped them submit a video to Covina Valley Opportunists. 

If West Covina High School wins it will be their second time in a row winning thanks to Athletic Leadership. Last year ALC won the whole $2000 grant for baseball, softball, and tennis. The money was won for new storage bins to hold the equipment for tennis, and helmets for softball and baseball.  

It is ALC’s hope to win the grant for more sports than last year. They have submitted a video for baseball, swim, wrestling, and golf.