A current issues class at the high school came up with the idea for the Miner Athletic Advisory Committee. The teacher for the class, Jacob Jobe, then proposed creating the committee to Athletic and Activities Director Jamie Sheetz, who agreed.
One of the committee’s goals is to establish a positive sports culture at the high school, which Sheetz said starts with leadership.
“It gets a little difficult with us as admin, just delivering things to the kids and having them just immediately accept it,” he said. “It's a lot better when it's coming from their peers. They're much more likely to receive that and to actually embody it.”
Senior Sutton Hull is part of the committee which started meeting in late fall of 2024. She said teachers and coaches helped select about 20 members to join the committee. Many are on multiple sports teams; Hull plays soccer and basketball.
One of the committee’s first exercises was to discuss the athletics program’s reputation now and what they want it to be in the future.
“Looking to those words that we wanted to be known for more were a lot more positive: inclusivity, sportsmanship, all that kind of stuff, versus what we thought we were known for is, like, cocky, arrogant, like the rich kids,” she said.
Hull said the committee wants to provide support for athletes and parents across all of the school’s sports teams.
“Mr. Sheets wanted this community to be someplace we discuss all of those [issues] and also create a common understanding for all the sports of what a healthy culture of inclusion is like and have something that's shared between all the sports,” she said.
Hull said the group will consider more than student behavior. The members hope to involve athletes in the coach hiring process.
“It was brought up that maybe it would be a good idea if we had some students or some athletes involved in the hiring process because the athletes know what they want in their coach,” she said.
Hull said potential coaches could attend a practice to work with athletes so students could give input before the coach is hired.
The committee eventually wants to expand to support all extracurricular activities, not just sports. Sheetz said that could happen as soon as the next school year.