The Athletic Department would like to welcome you to our community. We appreciate you taking the time to visit our site. We hope that you have some time to learn more about our program. IACS Athletics believes are many benefits to participating in sports as a youth. These include, but are not limited to: increased health, an increase in coordination, strength, endurance, speed, flexibility, and agility. Just as important is the role that athletics can play in the development of values, principles, friendships, fun, entertainment, excitement, and increased confidence. When children are exposed to athletics in a positive way they will experience all of these benefits to the fullest. However, if children are exposed to negative experiences while participating in youth sports, it is very unlikely that they will have the opportunity to acquire these benefits. In fact, these negative experiences have been leading to an alarmingly high dropout rate for children in athletics. We believe that many of these negative experiences in youth sports stem from unrealistic goals set forth by departments and coaches. The failure to take into account children’s biological and mental developmental ages when designing programs leads to programs that end up hurting children’s development rather than helping. At the middle school level, we strive to focus on the complete student-athlete and not just any one aspect of their athletic or personal development.
We are very excited to welcome back current athletes this season and are also looking forward to meeting the new members of our program. As our program grows, we continually welcome and encourage feedback. Please feel free to email either our Athletic Department at iacsathletics@innovationcharter.org or our Athletic Director, Nolan McKinnon, at nmckinnon@innovationcharter.org. In addition, all student-athletes, as well as their families, will receive an anonymous survey at the end of every season. We strive to make our program a positive addition to our athlete’s lives and your feedback is essential to our growth and development.