By Athletic Communications Assistant Alex McKeon
BEREA, Ohio – When building a team that will contend for championships, one of the most important factors to consider is creating strong comradery amongst all the players. Baldwin Wallace’s women’s volleyball team has sought to make this a primary goal and has introduced a unique method to recognize the tremendous student-athletes in the program.
Fresh off a stellar 23-6 opening season in her first year as head coach, Women’s Volleyball Coach Kacie Ehinger helped carry over an idea for internal recognition that had been brewing since the early offseason.
“While we were in quarantine, we read the book ‘The Hard Hat: 21 Ways to Be a Great Teammate’ by Jon Gordon,” said Ehinger. “Basically, we broke up into groups and each group were assigned chapters and had to present [about] it on Zoom that week. We decided we were going to carry those values over into the season, we bought a hard hat and decided we were going to recognize somebody that exemplifies some of those values during the week.”
The book identifies 21 ways someone can be a good teammate and each award winner is nominated for at least one of these reasons. Among the many on the list, the book references traits like positive contagious energy, “sweat more”, pursuing excellence and more. The award is distributed weekly to an athlete voted on by their peers every Thursday. Senior Sam Pruett earned the first ever honor to start the year and earning the award has become a big source of pride for each athlete.
The early returns tell a convincing tale. The award has been a hit among the team and inspired real consideration of important values for the program.
“The Hard Hat, I think, helps to hold us all accountable and give credit where credit is due,” said sophomore Isa Luciano. “When I was nominated, I felt so proud and motivated to continue being a good teammate. As a team, the Hard Hat is something that we can all strive for. It sets the bar that we all work hard to reach every time we practice, lift, or just get out on the court.”
Ehinger hopes that the friendly internal competition will be a genuine reminder of the most important aspects of team sports.
“I obviously don’t want it to be like ‘hey, I want to do these things because I want to win the hard hat’,” said Ehinger. “I want it to be genuine and I think it truly is and has been. We have a great bunch of kids anyways, but I think it’s given us a better appreciation of when they are doing those things.”
The award will continue to be distributed throughout the year with plans to continue its use into the future. The Yellow Jackets will look to continue their progress in becoming one of the top teams in the Ohio Athletic Conference in the spring.