Mount Olive, N.C. - The University of Mount Olive Athletics Department kicked off the 2019-2020 school year with a community service event and the annual department retreat during the first week of August.
UMO coaches and administrators began the 2019 fall semester with a community service event on Wednesday where the group lent a hand painting the Mount Olive location of the ADLA Organization – "A Lot of Direction, Love and Affection". Nearly 30 coaches and administrators showed up to give new life to the Carver Elementary School by painting inside and outside of the building.
ADLA's mission is featured on its website: "The mission of ADLA is to help our youth acquire the needed behavior and employability skills to function in a changing global society and promote the understanding and the practice of the universal values of honesty, integrity, and respect in all we do."
ADLA's Mount Olive location is at 612 N. Breazeale Avenue in the former Carver Elementary School. The ADLA corporate office is located at 801-A Poplar Street in Goldsboro. ADLA welcomes volunteers and donations.
Take a look at photos from our day painting over at ADLA.
The coaches and administrators came back together on Friday, at the George R. Kornegay, Jr. Student Farm for the annual department retreat. During the retreat, Vice President of Athletics Jeff Eisen shared the goals for the department, updates within Conference Carolinas and the Mount Olive campus community, and led the charge for the 2019-2020 year.
Following lunch, served by the ADLA catering group, several coaches spoke to the group about various topics regarding communication, coaching philosophies, what it takes to be successful, relationships, and what it takes to be a championship team.
Joelle Mafo, head coach of the women's volleyball team, spoke first and charged her fellow coaches to develop or update their coaching philosophies. Holley Garcia, assistant softball coach, gave a presentation on Jon Gordon's book title Training Camp: What the Best Do Better Than Everyone Else. During her presentation, she shared the 11 traits outlined by Gordon on what makes successful individuals successful.
Sean Brennan, head coach of the men's soccer team, talked to the coaches and administration about how important communication and building relationships are when working with student-athletes. Brennan shared information learned from the NCAA Identity Workshop he attended earlier this summer and how coaches can implement these actions into the way they coach.
Wrapping up the day were the coaches of the baseball team in Rob Watt, Jason Sherrer, and Casey Hodges. All three coaches were members of the 2008 National Championship Baseball team that was inducted into the UMO Athletics Hall of Fame last November. Coach Watt talked about what he and Coach Lancaster did building a championship environment the year UMO won the national title. Coach Sherrer and Coach Hodges shared the player perspective of being involved in the championship team experience.
The Trojans look forward to the beginning of the 2019-2020 athletic competition on September 5 with women's soccer traveling to take on Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. UMO will look to retain their hold on the Conference Carolinas Joby Hawn Cup at the end of the year. Mount Olive was awarded the Trophy following the 2018-19 athletic seasons for strong finishes in conference sponsored sports.