HARLINGEN — Just 2 Words.
That’s all it takes to explain the thought for the week each week at the Harlingen school district.
And this week it’s “Higher Standards.”
“That’s the first theme,” said Rob Davies, athletic director for the Harlingen school district.
Davies has just implemented the new program “2Words” for the school district’s athletes as a way to build character. It’s separate from the “Character Strong” programs already in existence.
“2Words” is a nationwide program designed for coaches with weekly video lessons for athletes, captains, coaches and parents.
There’s also a downloadable workbook lesson.
“It’s something that I’ve been introduced to for a couple of years now and have seen it produce great results for everyone: coachers, players, parents,” Davies said. “A lot of what we want to do as an athletic program is obvious, win competitions. But that’s not all we’re trying to do as an athletic program.”
He said the district’s athletic program seeks to take a three-pronged approach to helping young people become better students, better people and better athletes.
“The way the program works is we have a video series that’s usually around six minutes and we show that at the first of the week,” Davies said. “There’s a theme that revolves around two words.”
This week’s two words, “Higher Standards,” speak to numerous aspects of a student’s life to which coaches will speak the rest of the week.
“Higher standards, basically he’s talking to them about higher standards in every area of their lives,” Davies said. “The coaches are talking to them about higher standards in their relationships, in their decision making, in the classroom, at home with their parents, in athletics. You wanna change your life? Start having higher standards.”
The district kicked off the program Tuesday at different athletic programs around the district.
“It went really well,” he said. “Some of the programs had done it over the weekend, football in particular, and then the rest of it we tried to kick it off Tuesday. They just carry it out through the week.”
He said parents have free access to the activities, too. He was pleased with the support of the community.
“The first year that we’re kicking it off, we actually got it funded privately through our community,” he said excitedly.
