On Sept. 5, Schreiber held its now-annual PW Lead ‘Em Up Campus Day for the fall sports teams.  Lead ‘Em Up is a dynamic and engaging leadership program run by founder and president Adam Bradley.  This program started in Maryland and now works with youth, high school, and college sports teams all over the country.

“Lead ‘Em Up was an inspiring way to start my day.  I am not going to lie, waking up at 7:30 to meet with Mr. Bradley did not sound enjoyable at first, but after just five minutes of talking, I could not have felt more differently.  Adam Bradley has to be one of the most inspirational people I have ever met.  From the way he motivated us all with the ‘nine clap,’ to the way we all had our hands up answering different questions on what it meant to be a green teammate.  I think that with this new information that we are learning on how to be successful, it will lead our JV football team to be at its greatest potential,” said sophomore Brendan Lang.  

Bradley has strong feelings towards creating a winning team.  He feels that the base line to having a successful team is having a bond with each other and being a good teammate, or in his words, a “green teammate.”  Some characteristics of being a green teammate that the varsity and JV football teams came up with while meeting with Adam included being dependable, consistent, and disciplined.  During every practice, teammates strive to be green, which means being focused, listening to the other teammates’ thoughts and emotions, and lifting each other up when they are down.  

There are two other types of teammates that were talked about in the meeting: a “gray teammate” or a “red teammate.”  Being gray means that, although the person is not a leader, they do not bring the team down.  A gray teammate does not put in extra work to help the team succeed, but they just do enough to not harm the team.  In general, a gray teammate is someone who is just a bystander.  Red teammates, however, are people who bring the team morale and attitude down.  The red teammates pull the gray teammates down with them, leading to the downfall of a team.  Lead ‘Em Up tries to eliminate all red teammates.

 “Remove red, sway gray, build green,” said Adam Bradley when talking about how to make a team successful. 

The players said how they never thought about how their dispositions would influence each other before Lead ‘Em Up, and that after that they felt tangible effects of better leadership and an increase in performance both on the field and in the locker room.  

“I couldn’t imagine a better way to start our season.  I think without Lead ‘Em Up, our team would not be nearly as close as we are now.  I mean, just ask our coaches.  Since the meeting we have learned so many plays and we’re great leaders,” said sophomore Jake Eskanazy.

It was clear that with the perks presented to all the players, including the chance to win free Chick-Fil-A for a year, it made everyone care just a little bit more about wanting to be a green teammate.  Lead ‘Em Up also gave the teams a much better level of closeness and familiarity with not only each other, but as a whole team.  The program also helped make players who were previously in the red into contributing, leading teammates.

  “I feel like before  Lead ‘Em Up, the leaders on the football team did not get the level of intensity and respect needed to be a hard working, self driven team.  We have players like Max Taylor[10] giving us speeches that make us want to run through a wall.  I mean we are so much of a better football team than we used to be now that we have Lead ‘Em Up,” said sophomore Nick Noga.

At the end of every year, the coaches that participate in Lead ‘Em Up can nominate a player of their choice that they feel would be worthy of being a part of the Green 13.  The Green 13 is selected out of the hundreds of nominations all over the country, and the thirteen winners all get a year’s worth of free Chick-Fil-A.  

Lead ‘Em Up is one of the best things to ever happen to the school’s athletic department, and if they continue to bring Bradley back, our programs have a good chance to improve in the future.