Abstract

Due to the significant time commitments of practice, competition, and academics, few university student-athletes are offered comprehensive leadership development to hone skills essential to current and post-college success, skills such as teamwork, communication, critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and self-confidence. This preliminary study details the implementation of a leadership development program for student-athletes at a large university in the southeastern United States and examines the effectiveness of this initiative on academic and athletic outcomes. Our findings demonstrate that leadership development training, particularly when reinforced with team-specific leadership coaching, can produce significant positive benefits in student-athletes. In addition, the study also found the greatest gains amongst the women athletes, illustrating the importance of customized, gender-specific leadership development.