Success in athletics is as much about the brain as it is about the body.
And sometimes, the body takes a back seat.
That was the message sports psychology consultant and life skills coach Jim Skelton had for student-athletes and their coaches during two, three-hour presentations last month.
Skelton, highly-regarded in the field, has worked with a long list of collegiate and professional teams — from the Cleveland Indians to California State University — and addressed the Chaminade community as it bolsters athletics programming and facilities.
During Skelton’s Feb. 14 talk with student-athletes, Skelton delved into everything from championship culture to developing an “amazing attitude” to sticking to habits of excellence.
Nina Torio, who plays volleyball for the Silverswords, said she walked away from the presentation with a new appreciation for mental fitness in sports.
Torio, a business administration major on track to graduate in 2020, said she was especially intrigued by Skelton’s description of the “process” of building great athletes and teams.
Her takeaway: Successful athletes aren’t born — they’re made (thanks to lots of practice).
“The message that Jim talked about that resonated in me the most was the importance of the mental game,” she said. “Sometimes, the biggest battle and obstacle can be within ourselves — negative thoughts, doubts, an ‘I can’t do this’ mentality.’”
But Skelton, she said, encouraged attendees to establish — and practice maintaining — positive mental routines and habits.
“If we practice positive thinking and a ‘bounce back’ attitude, nothing can stop us from reaching the goals we set for ourselves,” Torio said, adding that Skelton’s points on the importance of character (and character building) in sports weren’t lost on her, either.
“Many of the things we learn from our respective sports can translate to the real world,” she said. “Teamwork, a strong mindset, and culture building are incredible life skills and qualities. It is up to me to shift from old habits and create a new standard of thinking and focus.”
While Skelton has worked with top collegiate and professional teams, he’s quick to point out that his interest in athletics has never simply been about elite sports. Rather, his passion lies in helping those from all different backgrounds and skill levels get real joy from competition.
One of his favorite quotes, after all, is from Nelson Mandela: “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.”
Kaitlin Kim, an elementary education student set to graduate in December, can appreciate that.
During Skelton’s student-athlete session, she said, she got some new tools to help her get through particularly stressful games or plays — including a handy breathing exercise — and a new understanding of when to push hard and when to let things go.
She plays softball for Chaminade.
And that’s a sport, she said, that’s “95 percent mental and 5 percent physical.”
“I liked (Skelton’s message) that we can control things that are in our control,” Kim said, “and to not get upset over things that are not in our control.”
Things, she added (a bit mischievously), like umpire strike zones and questionable calls.
Competing for seventh place in the nationally televised preseason tournament, the Chaminade University men’s team upset highly favored Berkeley in a 96-72 rout. It was the eighth all-time win for the Silverswords in their signature tourney and biggest-ever margin of triumph over a Division I school.
Against Cal, the Silverswords built an early lead behind the hot shooting of senior guard Dantley Walker, who finished with a career-high seven three-pointers and career-best 23 points. Junior forward Erik Scheive came off the bench to score 14 points, while junior forward Brett Reed and senior point guard Austin Pope tallied 12 points each.
Goodwin, honored as “Male Athlete of the Year” at Chaminade’s annual Co-Curricular Awards, signed a one-year contract with the Bristol Flyers of the British Basketball League. The California native is one of three “imports” from outside the European Union allowed on the Flyers roster under league rules.
Kuany inked a two-year contract with the CQUniversity Cairns Taipans of Australia’s National Basketball League. The 6-foot-5 guard was then sent to the team’s developmental squad, the Cairns Marlins of the Queensland Basketball League.
George Gilmore, Jr. ’04, after earning junior college all-America honors in men’s basketball at Santé Fe Community College in Florida in 1990, followed his coach to Chaminade University. In his first game in the 1991 EA SPORTS Maui Invitational, he scored 23 points against Iowa State. He followed that with 28 points against Toledo then 33 against Loyola Marymount. He finished the 1991-92 season second in the nation in scoring with a 28.3 scoring average while earning Division II All-America honors. The following year proved to be his landmark season when he set the Maui Invitational scoring record by pouring in 93 points in the three-game tournament, earning him the tournament’s Most Valuable Player honors, one of only two Chaminade players to hold that distinction. He graduated from Chaminade in 2004. Today, the Kailua resident, in alignment with Chaminade’s mission and values, works at the Kapolei Detention Home helping to mentor at-risk youths turn their lives around.
Bro. Bernard Ploeger, S.M., Ph.D., who concludes his service as Chaminade University president on June 30, 2017, will have served Chaminade for 23 years: eight years as its president, plus the prior 15 years in other leadership capacities. He is considered the chief architect in developing and carrying out the University’s strategic plans since 2008. One of the major key levers of success in those strategic plans has been to renew Chaminade’s participation in intercollegiate athletics as a point of pride for alumni and for campus and community supporters. Ploeger has been instrumental in encouraging Chaminade’s competitive success in regional and conference sports, has helped ensure an increase in outreach in Hawaii, and has pressed for financial support in securing program facilities.
Who would have thought the excess space under the Marianist parking structure could have been used for anything but bramble, dust and scurrying mongooses? But Bro. Bernard Ploeger, SM, Chaminade’s president, had an idea. Why not repurpose the empty cavern into something that Athletics could use? It was close to McCabe Gym and adjacent to the Saint Louis field. Why not? Bro. Robert Hoppe, the vice president of Marianist Center of Hawaii, agreed. It was a solvable math problem. The idea ignited into a vision that became a celebrated reality on February 6 when the University dedicated its new Athletics Coaches’ Office Complex.
William Villa, the university’s Athletics director, nodded. “These new offices and facilities will serve as a ‘home away from home’ for our student-athletes, coaches and the greater campus community as we grow our Silversword athletics tradition.”
Before the blessing, Fr. George Cerniglia, SM, Chaminade’s chaplain, shared a few words about salt and light. He encouraged those in Athletics to be salt and light for the student-athletes as a way of helping the students with values formation and becoming socially responsible citizens. He spoke about the high calling of educating young people in a Catholic Marianist University. Bro. Ploeger had read earlier from the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:13-14, which reiterated Fr. Cerniglia’s message of being the light on the hill, the hilltop of Kalaepohaku.
