WPU Women’s Golf Team Crushing COC Initiative
William Penn University Athletics
Oskaloosa–The William Penn women’s golf team has been busy living the NAIA’s Champions of Character initiative this year.
Head Coach Nik Rule separated his squad into four groups. Each group developed a plan around the five core values and turned its proposal into the coaching staff, therefore empowering the student-athletes to develop something of their own that will impact the community.
After the coaching staff combed through the proposals, they determined a schedule of events in which the team would participate in during the school year.
Team members from the first group visited the Oskaloosa Elementary School and participated in their annual Read-A-Thon as guest readers for Mrs. Miller’s kindergarten class.
“Our ladies were excited to read to the students and talk about their involvement at William Penn,” Rule said. “The ladies also spoke about bullying, sharing tips on how to prevent it and how it could impact them negatively in the future.”
The second group volunteered at the YMCA’s After School Program and talked to K-2 and 3-5 age groups about golf.
“Team members spoke about where our team is all from and how they got involved with golf,” Rule said. “The students asked questions about golf and the ladies shared their knowledge about the sport; it was amazing to hear how much they knew! They then played different interactive games and used their gross motor skills with the different age groups. It was great way to see how all the kids interacted with them.”
The third group helped serve food to the local needy population. At the end of every month, the Saint Mary’s Catholic Parish makes food available for the less fortunate for one week. The team helped the volunteers serve up to 80 people in the community, preparing the utensils, setting up the stations, washing the dishes, and helping with clean-up. Many student-athletes helped out for two days of the week.
Eight team players then volunteered at the Oskaloosa Winter Open, a fundraiser by the local YMCA. In the first group, each girl was stationed at a specific hole. They assisted smaller children that could not get through the course and directed people to their next holes. The second group did the same thing as the first, but also helped by tallying votes for the People’s Choice Award that was given to the organization that created the best hole design. All of the funds from the day went towards a scholarship program that allows less fortunate families the opportunity to join the YMCA.
Finally, another group volunteered with the local Girl Scouts troop. The players helped them earn their Good Sportsmanship badge.
“There is a lot that goes into getting a badge and we taught them what every athlete needs to know which is good ethics when it comes to sport and teaching them the importance of communication when it comes to team building while allowing them to take up a leadership role in an activity to teach the members of the team what activity to do,” Sophomore golfer Aramina Flores said.
