The Spartan Shield With Mark Hollis
11/17/2017 12:00:00 AM | General
When I was appointed Director of Athletics in 2008, I sought out to establish a focused, meaningful and easily understandable mission statement, clearly capturing what we do as an Athletic Department.
In preparing this I thought about our efforts to guide students on their journeys as well as involve our community beyond just inviting them to games and events. Spartan Athletics doesn't operate in a vacuum but is one small part of the greater collective.
Next, I built out core values so every student, coach and staff member within the Athletic Department could operate under a common guiding principle.
• Genuine respect: treating ourselves and those we serve with dignity, kindness and respect.
• Positive attitude: forward-thinking with our approach to challenges and opportunities.
• One focus: prioritizing and completing what is most important.
• Personal accountability: being personally accountable for our actions and their impact on our student-athletes and community.
• Continuous improvement: seeking excellence and striving to improve in everything we do.
• Authentic integrity: motivated by an attitude to do what is right in all that we do.
The mission and core values may appear as words on a sheet of paper, but the meaning is real and has the potential to deliver positive results for all members of this university. This is how we approach life, work collectively in our community and understand why we do what we do.
My focus has always been preparing student athletes for life after MSU by helping them become a complete person. While much attention is given to athletic accomplishments and academic pursuits, the college experience is more than just the score at the end of the game and lessons in the classroom. College is where you learn to be independent and to make decisions about your life and the lives of those around you; where you have the opportunity to meet people with different life experiences than you and begin to understand the greater world where we live, realizing that our commonalities are greater than our differences; where you make discoveries about who you are and who you want to be.
As staff, coaches and teachers we play an important role in this development. One of the most enriching things about working on a college campus is the opportunity to watch our young people attempt, fail, succeed, lead, communicate, compete, correct and learn. What is even greater is to witness their collective efforts and collaboration while having a positive impact on our entire community and society. Keeping our focus on our mission statement and core values will help us guide our student athletes through their worst failures and to their greatest achievements.
I'm proud of our student athletes. Along with their fellow classmates, they are amazing individuals from diverse backgrounds that come together to accomplish great things. At a young age, they have the ability to represent us with class and grace, and have an impact on so many Spartans and community members. When I established a mission statement and core values nearly 10 years ago I could only imagine the possibilities. Now we live them every day.