When Andrew Baldwin entered Nazareth College four years ago, one of the first classes he took as a college student was a special half-semester course designed specifically for student-athletes, known as CHAMPS/
Life Skills.

In this class, Baldwin learned time-management skills to help him juggle school work with his tennis practices and matches. The class also discussed issues such as diversity and alcohol and drug awareness.

Baldwin was required to keep a journal as part of the class, and the teacher, who also was the swim coach, would write back to him privately about issues he discussed in the diary.

"It was helpful to get it early on (in college)," Baldwin said of the CHAMPS/Life Skills class. "It was definitely helpful because it was taught by another coach, not by your own coach, so what happened was we had another person to go to, to approach with any issues. It's just another link on campus. It was nice having something like that first semester."

Baldwin is one of tens of thousands of student-athletes around the country who have taken part in and benefited from the NCAA's CHAMPS/Life Skills Program, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2004.

The CHAMPS (Challenging Athletes' Minds for Personal Success)/Life Skills Program is now in place at 472 NCAA institutions and conference offices, with more being added annually. Division I schools are required to provide life skills programming for student-athletes, but the program also is in place at 169 Divisions II and III schools.

CHAMPS/Life Skills focuses on five basic areas: academic excellence, athletics excellence, personal development, career development and service. Schools tailor the program to fit the specific needs of the student-athletes on their campus, which many say is one of the program's most rewarding features. CHAMPS/Life Skills can focus on one area of commitment or all five. Programs can be for freshman only or student-athletes at all grade levels. Examples of programs may include: goal-setting and time management, study skills, academic support programs, developing self-esteem, dealing with depression, personal and social development and career planning.

The CHAMPS/Life Skills Program also has an advisory team to help with programming initiatives and planning for the annual orientation and Continuing Education Conference. The 12-member team represents all NCAA divisions from different regions of the country.

"I think it's one of the most significant, most important programs that we have in athletics," Tracey Ranieri, an associate athletics director and head women's soccer coach at State University College at Oneonta, said of the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program. "It's been imperative to the success of our athletics program."

In 1991, the NCAA Foundation initiated efforts to create a total development program for student-athletes. Through collaboration with the Division I-A Athletics Directors Association, the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program was created.

Dutch Baughman, executive director of the Division I-A group, said his association was approached by the Foundation, and its members voted to get involved with the program. At the time, Baughman said, part of the agreement was that the I-A group would be responsible for the training and preparation of administrators at the schools, while the NCAA Foundation would provide marketing and other support.

Baughman, who credits previous Executive Director Gene Hooks with helping to develop the program, said at the time the Foundation approached the Division I-A group, several schools already had development programs for student-athletes on their campuses.

In 1994, after several years of development, the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program was introduced to the NCAA membership and was placed under the Association's education outreach staff. That summer, 46 NCAA institutions participated in the first orientation for administrators from around the county. Since then, about 50 member institutions and conferences have joined the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program each year.

Former NCAA President Cedric W. Dempsey, who led the Association from 1994 through 2002, was instrumental in bringing the program under the NCAA umbrella.

"I felt that the importance of a total experience for student-athletes was critical," he said. "The life skills program offered the opportunity for not only academic support and athletics support, but for helping young people learn to give back to the community and understanding their role on a college campus, as well as providing opportunities for growth in later life."

Dempsey had been involved with such a program while he was the director of athletics at the University of Arizona. He also was a past president of the Division I-A Athletics Directors Association, serving as head of that group in 1992-93. His involvement in both organizations provided a bridge between the two groups.

Kate Riffee, associate director of athletics at Ohio State University, also helped get the program running. She said Ohio State had been operating its own program since 1987, and administrators were brought in to the initial discussions about CHAMPS/
Life Skills. Riffee credits both the NCAA and the Division I-A group with helping to advance the program.

Dempsey admits that a number of NCAA members had doubts about the program when it was initiated. He said many believed it was not the role of the NCAA to engage in educational programs, while others said that institutions might not be able to afford additional programs.

"It was slow," Dempsey said. "There was some resistance, but at the same time I think people began to see the benefits."

Perhaps the most unusual feature of the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program is that no specific curriculum is required. No mandatory programs must be followed, and there is no set way to implement any of the five basic commitment areas. Each institution must decide the best way to implement the program on that specific campus.

The NCAA provides materials to institutions to help them get started. These include instructional materials in each of the five commitment areas, along with examples of how schools around the country have implemented programs on their campus.

Materials provided to each institution include a needs-assessment instrument to assist in determining the priority of student-athletes' needs, a program administrator manual, manuals that include teaching materials developed by nationally recognized providers of customized training programs, and supplemental materials such as CD-ROMs and videotapes to support the instructional materials.

Ohio State runs programs in all five commitment areas for all grade levels throughout a given quarter, said Riffee, who serves on the CHAMPS/Life Skills advisory team.

"We do things for every level, every sport, every gender," she said. "It's an all-encompassing program."

When student-athletes don't accomplish their goals academically or athletically, it rarely has anything to do with schoolwork or sports, Riffee said. It's other "speed bumps," such as relationship or roommate problems, stress management, career development or other issues. CHAMPS/Life Skills can help student-athletes manage those areas of their lives.

Riffee also noted that student-athletes, no matter how big or small their school, share similar concerns and issues. They are all 18- to 22-year-olds, she said, no matter if they're competing at the Division I level or Division III level. With that in mind, CHAMPS/Life Skills coordinators can share insights and ideas across the board.

Doug May, the life skills coordinator at Division III Nazareth, said his program has changed with the needs of the students in the seven years it has been on campus. When it began, it was only a class for freshmen, but now the school is introducing a component for sophomores and juniors. May said his program tries to touch on all five areas of commitment.

May, who also serves on the advisory team, said the chance to tailor the program to a specific college's student-athletes' needs is crucial to its success.

"Program coordinators can ask themselves, 'What types of kids do we get here? Are they blue-collar, suburban kids? Are they inner-city kids? What are our needs here?' " he said. "And I think that latitude is wonderful."

Oneonta State's Ranieri said that the NCAA providing the materials necessary to start the program makes it easier to bring it to her campus. Oneonta State was one of the first schools to have such a program.

"As a Division III school, it's very difficult to get funding to do anything extra for your program, so the fact that the NCAA was willing to give us the product, the boxes of materials, and sort of show us a way to collaborate, I thought it would be a great thing for our school," she said.

Ranieri said CHAMPS/Life Skills has helped the athletics department develop a connection with the rest of the college.

"It was just outstanding because we didn't have a real sense of connection with the rest of our campus -- we were sort of this other entity over here in the corner. When I went to the faculty and the health and wellness center and the career development center for all the different components of CHAMPS/Life Skills, though, people opened their arms and said, 'We'd love to help, we'd love to do programs,'" Ranieri said. "The fact that the NCAA had already put together a lot of the work and the programs, people just sucked it up.

"They recognized we weren't just about winning games. It really brought the campus into our world and really helped our students tremendously," she said.

CHAMPS/Life Skills coordinators

As with all aspects of the program, each campus has its own way of facilitating CHAMPS/Life Skills. At some schools, it's a full-time position, while at others it's just one of many hats a staff member wears. Some schools have CHAMPS/Life Skills budgets of $25,000, though most manage the program on $2,500 or less.

Ranieri said when she first brought the program to Oneonta State, she ran it by herself, and it was not even specified in her job description. After a few years, she was given an official title as coordinator of the program. It was considered to be 25 percent of her job responsibilities.

Now, Ranieri said, she oversees the program, while another staff member is the coordinator -- so two staff people are working on CHAMPS/Life Skills.

At Nazareth, May said, the CHAMPS/Life Skills class is taught by a coach -- an approach he says is different from most schools.

Riffee said Ohio State has a full-time CHAMPS/Life Skills coordinator and also an intern to help with the program.

A 2002 survey of NCAA CHAMPS/Life Skills coordinators showed that most coordinators are female. They are generally former athletes with a master's degree in education who are employed by a school's athletics department as either assistant or associate directors of athletics.

This "typical" coordinator generally serves between 300 and 400 student-athletes and devotes less than a quarter of her time to the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program. They typically have a very low budget for the program, yet it usually offers a wide range of services.

No matter who teaches the classes, or how it's run at a specific school, at least one representative from each new institution is required to attend the annual CHAMPS/
Life Skills Program orientation where the participants are placed in teams to exchange ideas, network and develop plans to implement the program on their campuses.

After the orientation program is the annual CHAMPS/Life Skills Program Continuing Education Conference. That conference introduces institutions to new materials, provides additional technical assistance and assists in improving the effectiveness of the program. The conference also provides coordinators with an opportunity to exchange ideas.

Other components

The NCAA Leadership Conference each spring also is connected to the CHAMPS/
Life Skills Program. About 325 student-athletes and 50 coaches and administrators from all divisions take part in the conference. Institutions with CHAMPS/Life Skills programs select four student-athletes for nomination to the conference. A selection committee reads more than 1,200 essays and selects one student-athlete from each school to represent that institution at the conference. The committee strives to balance demographics, including sport, gender and ethnicity.

The five-day NCAA Leadership Conference provides student-athletes with a forum to openly discuss issues that may affect them on their campus and in their community, while also providing them a chance to enhance their leadership skills. It also promotes better communication among student-athletes, coaches, administrators, faculty and communities.

Nazareth's Baldwin said he attended the conference between his sophomore and junior year of college. He said it helped him develop his leadership skills and become more involved in making decisions that affect student-athletes on his campus and elsewhere across the country.

"It helped me get to where I am today," he said, noting that he's now involved with the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and serves as a student-athlete representative on the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics.

Future of CHAMPS/Life Skills

At the annual Continuing Education Conference in February, CHAMPS/Life Skills will officially celebrate its 10-year anniversary. The theme for the February 7-10 conference in Long Beach, California, is: "Hang 10: Riding the Waves for a Decade."

In its 10 years under the NCAA umbrella, CHAMPS/Life Skills has grown tremendously -- from the 46 institutions that participated in the first orientation to 472 member institutions and conferences that use CHAMPS/Life Skills to provide a well-rounded experience for their student athletes.

The Division I-A Athletics Directors Association also continues its own CHAMPS program, which differs from the NCAA's program in that institutions must have programs in all five commitment areas. The I-A group annually acknowledges the schools with the best programs during an awards ceremony, and Baughman said there are plans to add more awards to recognize the most outstanding programs in the country.

"We can't rest on the accomplishments we've made," he said. "We have to continue to strive to find new ways to improve on what we've done."

Ohio State's Riffee said those involved with CHAMPS/Life Skills on the campus level agree that the program will continue to improve and reach more and more students.

"In the beginning, with limited resources, it was, 'Do one thing and do it well,' " she said. "Now, we're to the point where the resources are a little bit better because of the NCAA backing or because the word got out that this is a good thing to do, so Life Skills coordinators aren't fighting as hard as they used to have to.

"I think it's going to continue to snowball, hopefully, and people will realize that student-athlete welfare is where you need to sock some resources and people won't have to continue to fight as hard. The energy will snowball and it will continue."