Educational conference helps empowers Boone County athletes for future success

Between this past weekend's Columbia Como Shootout, students from across Boone County gathered for an educational conference to prepare them for life beyond the playing surface at Hickman High School.

Amand Hardiman, founder of LearnYou, spearheaded the event, which was backed by local sports figures such as Hickman boys basketball head coach Cray Logan and Donndre Smith, co-director of 17U Mid Missouri Phenon. Their support was instrumental in creating a unique blend of insightful panels to assist high school athletes.

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The conference featured sessions on college preparation and the recruitment process. It also included information on maximizing social media, yoga, and mindfulness. For Smith, who came to Columbia from Chicago in 2008, participating in this weekend's session was about giving back.

"I think what's important for me is to be more of an advocate, a leader, and a mentor for our next generation coming up," Smith said. "Another thing is just giving them constructive feedback, critical feedback, and sometimes negative feedback. And so that's very important for our student athletes should be able to hear some honesty to help them get to the next level."

Smith graduated from Hickman in 2011 and has served as a basketball coach with the Kewpies, Stephens College, and William Woods. He is currently the Dean of Students at Battle High School. His journey has helped equip him with an understanding of the challenges that young athletes face.

Hardiman's inspiration for LearnYou developed while he was working as a grad student assistant for Utah State's women's basketball team.

“Something that really resonated in my heart was how do we start educating these kids, not to steal their dreams, but to just help them understand the reality of how hard it is of what they’re wanting to do,” Hardiman said. “So, the vision for LearnU! Was it really, hey? How do we help individuals understand that life is about more than sport? We can build confidence in these young men and these boys to believe in themselves outside of sport.”

On Saturday evening, The “Chalk Talk” panel featured a lineup of accomplished alumni from the Boone County area, including Smith, Jimmy Whitt, Byron Bundy, Jackson Dubinski, and Jarvis Jennings. In front of student-athletes, each panelist offered valuable insight into navigating the complexities of post-high school athletics and life.

“With this group, we really want to invite these people back that are alumni so that these kids can see people from 573 that are doing amazing things, but can give them wisdom and give them their professional knowledge of how hard it is to actually get there,” Hardiman said. “So what we’re in hopes are with these panels and future work is that we can just build an environment where these kids can establish relationships with our alum that are in these spaces, that can really give them a lot of guidance, a lot of tips, and a lot of nuggets.”

Smith expanded on the importance of having former alumni come back to speak as it speaks to the diverse challenges no matter which route someone takes.

“A lot of student-athletes don’t understand what it means to get to the next level. And so there’s just a lot of roadblocks,” Smith said. “There’s a lot of adversity that they’re going to hit, and I just don’t think they understand that everyone hits it, and it looks different for everyone. So, I want them to know how to push through that wall.”

Both Hardiman and Smith hope the conference will have a lasting impact on Boone County athletes heading into the future.

“I really hope that it boosts a lot of kids recruitment,” Smith said. “I hope this community understands that we have a great group of young men who has an objective, and what we can do is No. 1 protect that objective and then turn that objective into a goal and then help them get led in the right direction,”

This weekend's event was the first time it’s been held. Hickman and Tolton’s boys teams participated as well as one representative from Rock Bridge and Hazelwood East’s boys program. It's surely not the last time this event will take place, according to Hardiman. He hopes to include more participants and grow the educational conference in the future.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Educational conference helps empowers Boone County athletes for future success