Paul Putz, Cori Bolts, and Kenny Boyd

Transcript

Derek Smith:
Hello, and welcome to Baylor Connections, a conversation series with the people shaping our future. Each week we go in depth with Baylor leaders, professors and more, discussing important topics in higher education, research and student life. I'm Derek Smith, and today we are talking character formation for student athletes. Over the summer, Baylor earned a grant to do just that, to strengthen a Christian character formation for student athletes.
The Educating Character Initiative awarded the university a $50,000 capacity building grant to fund cooperative work between Baylor Athletics and Truett Seminary Faith and Sport Institute with both practical and research applications for character formation in the evolving landscape of college sports. Members of both divisions serve as leaders in this initiative. Paul Putz, Director of the Faith and Sports Institute and Truett Seminary.
Juliana Smith, Executive Senior Associate Athletics director for Mission Impact and Enrichment. Kenny Boyd, Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Services, and Cori Bolts, Senior Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Success. Paul, Kenny and Cori are with us today on the program. It's a great group and hey, thanks to you all for joining us today. Appreciate you all coming on.

Paul Putz:
Thank you. Great to be here.

Cori Bolts:
Thanks for having us.

Kenny Boyd:
Thanks Derek .

Derek Smith:
Well, so let's start off, we're going to dive into what this is and why it's unique and helpful that this is a partnership between athletics and between Truett Seminary, a lot of great sports ties, but I want to ask you all just to paint a picture of what this is about. If you all are just having an informal conversation about how things are going and some of the things you're interested in around this partnership, what are the things you might be talking about? Paul, let's start with you.

Paul Putz:
I think one of the biggest things from the past couple months has been who do we invite into this? So the grant is really designed to build a foundation for something more, and that involves collaboration, it involves voices who have thought deeply about this and are doing good work, and we want to hear from them. So the last couple of months a lot of our conversations have been who do we invite? Who do we make sure that they know about this? And how can we learn from the resources that Baylor has when it comes to this topic?

Derek Smith:
What about you, Cori?

Cori Bolts:
I'd say to add to Paul's thoughts, the other thing that's been in our conversations, what's really been on my mind is what this grant and this work will allow us to do and what that means for the way that we operate within athletics and the opportunities that we can provide to our student athletes. And not thinking about student athletes just when they arrive, but thinking about their journey to become a Baylor student athlete.
And are there resources for parents or things we can do in that space? And while they're with us for however long they're with us, because we know the landscape is changing, but what does that look like? So the forward-facing piece of it and the visionary piece of it is what's gotten me excited. And I think that as we continue to have these conversations and get into some of the things that Paul was mentioning with bringing the right people into the conversation, it'll help us really be able to shape the future of our industry, but also shape the future of our department.

Derek Smith:
What about you Kenny?

Kenny Boyd:
Yeah, I think about as Paul's talking about who's included, who's involved, and then what we're doing across our department as Cori was alluding to, I think it comes back to some things that we've heard recently, even from the NCAA about holistic care, holistic development, looking at the entire person and the people around that person. And so I think there's a process that we have to acknowledge that includes not just the development of our student athletes, but the people that are speaking into our student athletes to make sure that they have the right training, the right information, that we're speaking a shared language when it comes to how we're developing our student athletes.

Derek Smith:
This grant is an exciting opportunity, but it's not just the start of when Baylor Athletics is invested in the spiritual formation character development of student athletes. Cori, I'll ask you, how would you describe the way that permeates the athletic department in general? And then I'll ask you following how this grant builds on that and what's unique about it?

Cori Bolts:
Sure. I think for a lot of our team members within the athletics department, everyone touches our student athletes at some point and in some way. And the idea of character formation, in my opinion, and I believe it to be true for our leadership as well, is that each individual working in athletics is contributing to the character formation and the spiritual formation of our student athletes. And I think we're seeing that in the day-to-day interactions of our members of our athletics department team with our student athletes.
And as you think about the opportunity that this grant provides, I believe, and Kenny mentioned this a little bit, it gives us an opportunity to have shared language, but then also give our people practical tools that can help them in living out this desire of our department to be individuals that are helping to walk alongside our young people and develop them as people, but then also develop them spiritually. And we're doing that organically, but burning to have some specific things that we can point to that could appropriately equip us is very encouraging.

Derek Smith:
So when we read the article and read about this we're thinking student athletes, and certainly they're the focal point, but this is really grant that touches on so many other people.

Cori Bolts:
Absolutely. I would say so for sure. And when we think about the impact on student athletes we're thinking about the people that interface with them most frequently, that's our coaches, that's our staff members, and that's other people within our department. So equipping them appropriately will subsequently have the impact on the student athletes in addition to whatever programming is provided through sports ministry or whatever the programming is provided through character formation.

Derek Smith:
Here's a question I don't know the answer to. How did we find out about this? Who came to who with this? Any one of you all can jump in. I don't know who was the impetus behind this here. Paul?

Paul Putz:
Yeah, it feels like there were a couple of them. For this grant specifically it was Todd Still, the dean of Truett Seminary who sent it my way and said, "Hey, is there something here we could do with the Faith and Sports Institute in Baylor Athletics?" But even before the grant came out, Kenny and I and some other Faith and Sports Institute staff members we'd had some conversations about this idea of some partnership to think about holistic care and development, especially around parents and caregivers.
And so that sparked some creativity and some ideas. And so when this grant opportunity came out we connected with Juliana and Cori and Kenny and brought everyone together to think about how do we do this well? So it feels like there were a few different origin points, but in terms of the grant specific, yeah, that was me reaching out and building on conversations that we'd had.

Kenny Boyd:
And I think a lot of that started when we started to see some of the industry begin to shift. And coming into a space where we do, I mean I'll say this and Cori and the things that we're doing and Baylor built in our character area within athletics is nation-leading in a lot of ways of how they're impacting our student-athletes. But when we looked at that program and the way that it was set up, it was set up very intentionally around the student athletes that we had been seeing and come through.
And so as we started to talk through how do we evolve with what's happening in college athletics and how do we do that? And those conversations started with Paul about what role could Faith and Sport Institute play in helping us reach not only our student-athletes, our prospective student-athletes, parents, caregivers, training staff, maybe even alumni that are no longer at Baylor, but spent time here. So now you start to look at the lifecycle of the athlete, you look at the people that are around supporting them and are really their biggest consultants when it comes to problems and stresses that they're dealing in life and how can we help influence that

Derek Smith:
Kenny, as you mentioned, Cori and Juliana and that team and a lot of people at Baylor have been doing this at an elite level, but we've talked about the changing landscape within college athletics. What are some of those things that you're looking at and saying, "All right, we've done this way, but we see these changes." What are some of the places those are intersecting for you that you're wanting to work on?

Kenny Boyd:
Well, sometimes it's just as simple as how do you deal with life? How do you deal as a student-athletes perspective? I think there are certainly a lot of things that well documented that they're dealing with stresses, anxieties. But even as parents, how do we help them through those times? And so let's put ourselves in the shoes of not just parents, but our staff. A lot of times we're being called into responding, sitting in moments of personal trials that they're dealing with and how do we help equip them to overcome those? We think about really some of the things that we try to embrace in training and its coping skills.
It's the ability to be resilient through some of these challenges. And I think of a quote that basically says, "When you know what's coming prepare, when you don't know what's coming position." And I think we know that we're going to have student athletes coming through. That's a known. And so we can prepare for that. But we can also position people to respond appropriately to these things that we just don't know that are coming, but they're going to be there. And so how can we position people with the right way to respond? But I don't know, Cori, maybe you have a perspective on the student athlete side.

Cori Bolts:
I was in conversation with someone yesterday about this actually, because the question came up with how things are shifting. What is the value of things like this for our student athletes? And I got on my soapbox a little bit, but what I shared was I think the role of individuals that are helping people do life and specifically in our case, able to do that through a faith lens is critically important. It's going to be even more important than it probably was before now because of all the stressors and challenges and things that our student athletes are going to have to navigate. And it's a myriad of things.
Practically we could have student athletes that are seeing their greatest earning potential in the times that they're here. Practically we could have student athletes that feel stressors coming from all different angles for whatever the reasons are, and they're trying to navigate that. And then you have your everyday challenges of injury and class balancing and not playing as much as you want to play. And how do you get through that well? How can you be resilient through those times? And what they're going to do is they're going to go to their athletic trainer and they're going to talk about it as they're getting treatment or they're going to come up to their academic coach.
And as the academic coach is meeting with them they're going to maybe notice that the student athlete looks a little down or maybe struggling and going to ask questions and then flood gates open and we get information. So in those pivotal moments, how are people handling that and how are we helping to point people back to Christ and also to walk them through practically what can be done and the resources that they have available to assist them with that? And I think that's where Baylor is different because our resources here are unlike any others, in addition to the fact that we also get to have the ultimate resource of pointing people back to Christ.

Derek Smith:
Cori, and you painted this picture, but I'll just try to acknowledge. It seems like what you're saying in a lot of ways is anyone in athletics might be called on in a moment to almost play a pastoral care role or certainly need to be ready for a moment when that student athlete is ready to open up.

Cori Bolts:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that's why this grant is so exciting and why the thought of all four of us coming together to consider what this could look like practically is intriguing.

Derek Smith:
This is Baylor Connections. We are discussing this new grant that Baylor earned over this summer from the Educating Character Initiative. It's a capacity building grant to fund cooperative work between Baylor Athletics and Truett Seminary to strengthen Christian character formation for student athletes. Visiting with Paul Putz of the Faith and Sports Institute and Truett Seminary, and Kenny Boyd, and Cori Bolts from Baylor Athletics. So Paul, let's focus really on the grant now and take us inside a little bit the nuts and bolts, if you would. What does this grant do that allows you to implement some of these new things?

Paul Putz:
Yeah, at a big picture view it's about building connections and trying to connect research to practice. So we create space for some conversation that happens across the Baylor Athletics department. And that's happening through a book discussion and some conversation related to the most advanced research when it comes to character formation sports and faith, we want to explore that with people who are on the ground doing the work in Baylor Athletics. So there's the conversation element that's happening. And then along with that, we want to pursue questions.
So get a sense of what are the most pressing issues, concerns, and questions that people in Baylor Athletics have, the support system who are trying to help equip student athletes. And with those questions we'll form the foundation of a survey that we'll be able to send out and get some data and information that can help Baylor Athletics and help us at the Faith and Sports Institute better understand what those concerns are. And then the other piece to it is creating a way to look at the research that already exists and present it in practical, actionable ways to Baylor Athletics staff to create a repository so that if there's a question that comes up, someone in Baylor Athletics can say, "All right, what's the foundation here? What does research say when it comes to bringing these areas together?"
Oftentimes we'll find with research that affirms what's already going on, and certainly that's the case what we'd see with Baylor Athletics in character formation, but it can also help you explore new areas maybe you hadn't considered before. And as we're thinking as Kenny and Cori have mentioned, thinking about what's so unique about Baylor is you're pursuing elite level athletics where winning matters, but you're not throwing in the towel on the character formation piece. I think some places in college sports are saying, "You know what? Things are different. Times have changed. Let's just win. Let's forget about the rest."
But college sports, the foundation of it, for over 100 years it's built on this idea that sports are a way to shape you into a certain type of person. That there's something deeper than the game that actually forms you into a human being. And a place like Baylor with a Christian mission and this vision to form people who can be leaders in the world, it means a sports experience needs to be tied to that. And what I'm so impressed with Baylor Athletics is that they haven't given up on this idea that we are actually trying to build future leaders.
We're trying to build people who have integrity, who have character, and we're willing to put resources into it in time. I mean, it is unique for program at Baylor's level to invest in a grant that connects with research across campus. So to bring all those together and to think holistically, not just about how do we continue to do well what we're already doing, but how do we even move forward to think about the future? And how do we create things that other schools can even look to? That's what really gets me excited about this.

Derek Smith:
And Paul, I'll ask you, obviously Kenny and Cori today, at some point they're going to interact with these student athletes that we're discussing. For you and the Faith and Sports Institute when you think about your students, for people who don't know, what are some of the places they're going to go out in the world? Where are they going to go serve? And how can this serve them?

Paul Putz:
Yeah, we have students who are both online and in person. So our in-person students are the ones who could be connected most with what's happening in Baylor Athletics. We have a couple students who serve in internship roles. They're helping with the sports ministry team over in Baylor Athletics, and they help out with chaplaincy. So some of our students go over there and serve in that way. Some of our students get practical experience in volunteer roles as well.
They might help out with the team and get to apply what they're learning in the classroom with what's going on in Baylor Athletics. So at a real practical level that's the way Truett students are able to connect with what Baylor Athletics is doing. On a bigger picture level I think when we're thinking about the unique resources Baylor has, one thing that both Baylor Athletics and FSI believes in is that we haven't fully taken advantage of how much good is work is happening across Baylor's campus.
And so we have students who are trying to learn about what does it look like to be a Christian in sports? And we have people in Baylor Athletics who are living this and doing it. And so this grant not only gives our students a chance to maybe go over and connect with and learn from what Baylor Athletics is doing, but also let's bring some Baylor Athletics staff to teach and help us develop our curriculum better so that when we're trying to train Christian leaders in sports, they're going to get to hear from what's happening on the ground there.

Derek Smith:
Cori or Kenny, he just painted a picture of how it benefits FSI. I'm curious from your standpoint, obviously Baylor is unique as a Christian university with high level athletics. What opportunity does it present athletics to get to work with a seminary and obviously one who has someone like Paul who's interested in that intersection of faith and sport?

Kenny Boyd:
Well, you heard it play out just in what Paul was saying. I mean, a lot of it, the value of being able to work with an area of academia that can bring in the substantive support of where research is being done, where the things that you think are happening are playing out objectively, and that's being shown in peer-reviewed research and how that correlates to a lot of the things that we think are best in practice. I mean, I see a partnership between an area that certainly has people that can invest time and attention into a very specific area that can allow us to grow deeper in the way that we provide our resources.
It allows a space for us to be able to engage with our staff in more meaningful ways. When we think about the challenges that we're dealing with as a work setting even, finding ways for people to connect with their job in a meaningful way that builds the satisfaction goes beyond salary, it goes beyond job description, but allows them to dive deeper into something that helps to grow them. I think that's an opportunity that I see. And the biggest thing is just the partnership of what we can continue to do for our student-athletes that goes beyond just what we're offering in our services and care that it can be something that's more long-lasting.

Derek Smith:
We are visiting with Cori Bolts and Kenny Boyd of Baylor Athletics, Paul Putz of Baylor's Faith and Sport Institute, and Truett Seminary. Cori, looking ahead, and maybe this is a question for all of you, but I'll start with you, what are some of the ways you're going to measure the success? Are there benchmarks or data points you're going to be looking for as this goes forward?

Cori Bolts:
That's a fantastic question, and this is where you lean on the people that have experience in this area so I'm sure Paul will be able to give us some insight. But from my perspective in thinking of all that we've talked about so far, I think a tangible benchmark as we look at the success of this is being able to get that feedback that Paul mentioned from that survey and implementing, applying, doing something with that information. But I think on the other side of that a tangible show of success could also be the stories. Now that's qualitative, not quantitative, but the stories that come as a result of how our people have been equipped and how that has then impacted the student athlete.
And while that may not be an immediate benchmark that we can see or something that we'll be able to have a conversation about this time next year, I could definitely see, and my hope is that we will begin to see shifts in people's interactions with student athletes, shifts in the student athlete experience overall, and how much they're finding value in being a student athlete at Baylor and a student at Baylor because of the byproduct of what this grant and the work being done with this grant will provide. So those are two that come to mind for me.

Paul Putz:
Yeah, I mean, building off of that, what's unique about a capacity building grant is it's really designed to create and explore. And so with some grants when you receive them, it's sort of, "Hey, we're going to have this specific set of outcomes by the end of it." The capacity building grant it's one year and it's to use those resources to bring people together and to see what you can develop from that. So when I think about outcomes, I mean Cori is right. They're a little bit more nebulous, a little bit more qualitative, but I think in a couple of key areas what we'll see, one, we will see that feedback leads to some practical takeaways across what Baylor Athletics is doing and what we are doing with FSI.
We have a better sense of the challenges and issues and possible solutions when it comes to Christian character formation for student athletes. So I think that's one. The second one I think I'd see, is that we create a framework for greater collaboration across campus. Baylor is already doing world-class research on character formation in sports. We have scholars like Perry Glanzer, Sarah Schnitker, Kevin Dougherty, I mean, they're at Baylor and they're doing research that across the world people are recognizing and they're starting to look at athletes in sports as a site for character formation.
So we're actually going to invite those scholars into some of these sessions where we're meeting together and learning from them and hopefully creating ways that there is ongoing collaboration so that if there is new research that Baylor is doing, it comes to FSI, it comes to Baylor Athletics, and there's more communication happening. So I think if we build habits of collaboration institutionally, that's another outcome, that's a success. The third thing I would say is, it's a success if it leads us to a long-term investment in a program that can last beyond just this year.
And that's really the hope. That's why we got into this. We're all sacrificing some time and other things we could be doing because we believe this can lead to something more down the road. And so this is a success if we're able to maybe invite maybe there's supporters, there's other grant agencies or networks who say, "I want to invest in this. I want to be a part of building something from this that invites parents and caregivers, that helps Baylor Athletics fully develop this world-class and unique space." And so it'll be a success if we can build something more beyond this. And I said I had three, but the last one is if what we do here can help other institutions too.
So Baylor as a Christian institution we are at the lead. I hear this from Christian athletic departments in smaller schools often. They reach out and hear what we're doing with the Faith and Sports Institute and they want to know how Baylor Athletics does things. And so we plan to take what we've learned and we'll be presenting this at some conferences. We'll be telling the story of what has happened over the year. And we hope that that's helpful. So if there are other Christian high schools, Christian colleges, Christian sports leaders, we want them to learn from what's happening and hopefully have some takeaways that they can have too.

Derek Smith:
That's wonderful. A great description. As we wind down on the program that's a great way to really sum it up as we look forward to seeing the work that comes ahead from this in the months and certainly the ripple effects far beyond that. But before we let you go, Kenny and Cori, I don't know if you know this. We've got a published author in our midst here who's got a book coming out on the 8th of October officially. Right, Paul?

Paul Putz:
Yes.

Derek Smith:
Spirit of the Game.

Kenny Boyd:
There we go.

Cori Bolts:
Love that.

Derek Smith:
Yeah. So I'll admit I haven't pre-ordered yet, but I will be making plans to do so. But Paul, before we go, I got to ask you, obviously exciting. What would you like people to know about the Spirit of the Game that comes out maybe for people who might be interested in checking out what the content is?

Paul Putz:
Yeah. Well, it's a history of sports and Christianity in America. And I do nerd out a little bit in it. So just full disclosure, this is some academic history, but in some ways it builds on what we're trying to do with this grant. It's looking at the way Christians have engaged with sports, with the belief that sports are more than a game, that sports form who we are as Christians and as people. And I try to tell 100 years of that history. And so if that's a topic that interests people listening, you can check it out.
But also I think what's cool is that I got to write this book, but what Baylor Athletics is doing is they're actually making it happen. It's one thing to write about something and to tell the history of something, but it's really cool to then get to be a part of seeing people who are investing their time into forming young people, to developing them as Christians. And to play a part in what the future of that could look like is a pretty unique thing. So yeah, it will be fun having the book out there, but even more encouraged by maybe what we can do here at Baylor for 40, 50 years to come. So the next person who writes this maybe can talk about what's been happening here.

Kenny Boyd:
That's right. You need to get the book.

Derek Smith:
Get the book.

Kenny Boyd:
Paul's a smart guy. He's got a lot of great thoughts. Get the book.

Derek Smith:
I'll do that. Yeah. Well, you have stories, history, all of the above, we'll look forward to that and that's called the Spirit of the Game. Well, Paul, Kenny, Cori, thanks so much for taking the time to join us. We're excited to see the impact of the work you all are doing and very appreciative of all you do for our students, both in Truett and across campus in student athletics.

Cori Bolts:
Thank you so much.

Kenny Boyd:
Thank you Derek.

Paul Putz:
Thanks Derek.

Derek Smith:
Paul Putz, Director of the Faith and Sports Institute and Truett Seminary, Cori Bolts, Senior Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Success, and Kenny Boyd, Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Services, our guests today on Baylor Connections. I'm Derek Smith. Reminder, you can hear this in other programs online, baylor.edu/connections, and you can subscribe on iTunes. Thanks for joining us here on Baylor Connections.