Nick Roth

5 October 2014
Page 1 of 5

Basic Information
Full Name: Nicholas Roth
UC Email: rothne@mail.uc.edu
College: College of Business
Major: Finance
Title of Project: Leadership in Coaching Bowling
Thematic Area: Leadership
Expected Project Start Date: November 3
rd
, 2014
Expected Project End Date: March 19
th
, 2014

Project Information

1. Provide a detailed abstract of your proposed honors experiential learning project.

Attending Elder High School may have been the best decision of my life. Not only did it
provide me the opportunity to attend this prestigious post-secondary institution of education, but
it also allowed me to get involved and meet some of the most influential people in my life. One
of those opportunities was getting involved in athletics, where I excelled beyond my wildest
dreams. The bowling program at Elder High School isnt the best program in the state by any
means but it can stand among some of the best around for all of the things we accomplish
throughout the year. Not only do we run more bowling tournaments than any other high school
team in the area, but we also create unique opportunities for the bowlers in our program that
other schools cannot replicate. The head coach, David Sievers, is the driving force behind the
wonderful work done within the program, and I plan to add my abilities to the mix so we can
create an even stronger environment in the future. Not only is he a member of multiple boards of
directors, including United States Bowling Congress Mens Division and Ebonite International,
but he also coordinates all Elder related bowling events. Last year, along with the help of Mr.
Orr, the head coach of Moeller High Schools bowling program, Coach Sievers coordinated the
first bowling match between high schools located in a different state in the history of the Greater
Catholic League. My goal by becoming assistant coach is incorporating my own ideas into the
already thriving program. Coach Sievers has taken on a lot in the last few years on top of his
regular job.

When I was a member of the bowling program, I learned a lot about myself and am best
friends with the people I bowled with over the last four years, many of whom will still be
members of the team this coming year. Being able to influence these people further and continue
the tradition of camaraderie that I was exposed to while creating a better team and program for
the future are all goals of mine in my pursuit of expanding my own horizons and leadership
abilities.

My time commitment to this project will be multiple hours per week, varying depending
on the team schedule. Due to my schedule drastically changing at the start of spring semester it
will cause my participation to change as well. For the first part of the season, from around
November 3
rd
to December 12
th
my participation will be limited to moderating matches on
Tuesdays and Thursdays. Throughout winter break I will be available to participate the most,
and will be present at all matches, practices, and tournaments. Then, when classes begin again
Nick Roth
5 October 2014
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for spring semester, on January 12
th
, my participation will switch to Monday practices and
weekend tournaments. I expect my total participation to be roughly 3-4 hours per week each
week while I am in school and 7-8 hours over winter break, which brings my estimated total
participation time of direct contact to be 100 hours over the span of four months. In addition to
the direct contact and involvement portion, during and after the experience I have set aside time
for reflection, 5 hours of reflection during the experience and 5 hours of reflection after the
experience to truly understand the meaning behind my work. The reflection during the
experience will be bi-weekly and roughly half an hour of reflection per reflection period.

Clearly and thoroughly address how each of the following elements will be exhibited in
your work:

2. Connection to Learning Outcomes within the Honors Thematic Area

The learning outcomes that I have chosen to pursue are identifying the various
characteristics of a leader in a given situation/role and having the ability to relate, communicate,
and work effectively with peers. I have been working with Coach Sievers for the last four years
as a member of his team and now being able to work with him as a peer will provide me a whole
different perspective on the way he leads his team to being successful. I have been fortunate to
learn as much as I have under his instruction, and I cant wait to learn more.

Through my leadership roles in the past, including being the Senior Captain of the
Bowling Team, president of the Euchre Club, and head official on a soccer field. I have learned
some qualities of a good leader. However, for the most part this communication has been with
people who I am of similar age with. Understanding how to communicate with people can
completely change based on basic demographic principles. This opportunity of being assistant
bowling coach will be the first time I will be considered a peer of an adult in a professional
setting. Understanding how to communicate with people of a different demographic will be a
very valuable thing that I wish to take out of this experience. Not only will I be communicating
directly with Coach Sievers, but also being in communication with coaches from other high
schools will be valuable. I may come to find out that the methods of communication are similar
but I believe that there will be a degree of difference between communicating with a group of
high school students and a group of adults. In this same respect, I do have a fear entering this
position. Young bowling coaches are not commonplace in the realm of high school bowling.
Not receiving respect from other coaches is something I am concerned about, and will have to
work through if it in fact does become an issue. I have gained the respect of my former coach
over four years of being a good teammate and listener but not every other coach around the
league is as accepting of change. This may be a slight obstacle to my success in this position,
but it is something that I am aware of and ready to face if the situation arises.

As much as Coach Sievers has taken on in the past, he intends on continuing his efforts
throughout this season adding even more to his schedule. On top of everything I mentioned
before, he has ramped up his recruiting tactics in an attempt to get students involved with
bowling early and show them the Elder mentality long before they are thinking about choosing a
college. Once they learn the Elder way it makes the decision for them to attend Elder and
ultimately join the bowling team much easier. He has done this by creating a bowling league on
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Sunday nights and having a camp run through Elder. This Sunday night bowling league is
instructional but also have incentives for finishing higher in the standings at the end of the
league. In addition, instead of getting a standard 10 minutes of practice before bowling, this
league offers half an hour of free practice prior to the leagues start so that the bowlers can work
on different techniques prior to competition. On top of the league, coach started a bowling
camp, the first ever bowling camp offered through Elder. All of these efforts are great but Coach
Sievers needs help running it all after being promoted at his primary place of employment.
Taking on leadership roles in some of these events and working with Coach Sievers in these will
be crucial in the success of the program and my understanding of how true leadership works.
My father once told me, A business that isnt growing is dying. I think that applies in this
situation and how Coach Sievers is running his program and how I want to run my life. Working
with him in the recruitment efforts he has begun and helping him to improve those opportunities
and in the strategic team decisions will help me grow and understand everything that goes into
not only leadership, but also crucial decision making. Both of which are qualities that any good
business man should possess.

3. Connection to Goals and Academic Theories

As previously mentioned, bowling in high school drastically changed my life. The bond
created in a team setting is one that is rarely matched. Being able to facilitate the bonding of this
new team is an opportunity I couldnt have dreamed of.

Giving back is something that I enjoy doing. Community service was required by our
high school, 5 hours a quarter if I remember correctly, but it was never something I minded
doing. As I see it, spending my time helping other people has to be time well spent. My efforts
at an organization called BLOC Ministries is something I am very proud of and continuing these
efforts into the Elder bowling program, something I love, cannot do anything but enhance my
love for the sport and doing good deeds.

Despite never studying academic theories in the past, doing some minor research on them
for this project I have recognized a few that I believe would be very applicable in the situations I
will find myself. These theories include, the Situation Theory, where I will look at ways to
exhibit leadership depending on the situation. In studying this theory I will analyze multiple
possible courses of action for a situation that arises and come to the best possible decision using
sound leadership skills and decision making abilities. Another theory I would like to investigate
is the Relationship Theory, which examines how I, as a leader, connect with the members of the
team. I would like to examine the question, What am I actively doing to give myself a stronger
ethos in their minds? And the last theory which I have debated before is the Great Man Theory.
This theory tried to answer the question whether people are born to lead or is leadership
something that can be developed over time.

4. Initiative, Independence, and/or Creativity

Leadership is a universal quality that can be applied to many different situations. In order
to better understand it and the characteristics of leadership I thought I would start somewhere
familiar to me. After the completion of my senior bowling season last year, knowing there
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was an opening on the coaching staff, I went up to my coach and volunteered my services.
He thought about it for a few seconds and told me that he would love to have me on the staff.
This shows initiative on my part because not many 17-year-olds want, or could handle, the
responsibility of being an assistant coach at the high school level.

Although being a coach has been done before as an honors experience, I still think this is
a unique and creative idea. The way I am going to approach the experience and make it my
own will set my experience apart from others that have been done before.

5. Reflection

In order to reflect on my experience I will keep a journal of my experience on a bi-
weekly basis since the entire experience spans multiple months. This will result in
approximately 10 journal entries. For each entry, I will write a brief summary of what happened
the past two weeks, what I learned, and how I can apply those things in the future. In addition to
the bi-weekly situation analysis, I will ask a pose a different theme, or question, for each two
week period. The first weeks theme will be Leadership for Dummies and while writing each
journal entry I will pose a new theme or question for the next two week period. This will allow
to reflect even further throughout the experience. Then at the end of the experience, I will bring
all the thoughts I have gathered throughout the experience and blend it together to create a
seamless reflection essay describing everything I got out of the experience as a whole and how I
am going to apply it to my everyday life.

6. Dissemination

My dissemination will take place at the bowling banquet at the end of the year, which is
currently scheduled for March 19
th
and the official end date of my project. The bowling banquet
is meant to wrap up and analyze the year and I think it would be a perfect time to share my
experience with others. I plan on making my dissemination a surprise, where at least the
majority of the people there will not know I have being doing a project throughout the season. I
will give a presentation to all of the team members, coaching staff, and parents letting them
know just how special everything was to me and hopefully how I positively influenced the
situation.

The bowling banquet is normally a situation where people want to leave as quickly as
possible because it can run pretty late and its always on Thursday night. With that being said, I
would like my dissemination presentation to be long enough where people can understand
exactly what I did and what I got out of the experience, but not too long where it could be
potentially boring and a waste of their time.

7. Project Advisor

David Sievers, Head Bowling Coach of Elder High School
Phone number: (513) 673-2549
Email: elderbowlingcoach@yahoo.com

Nick Roth
5 October 2014
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8. Budget

Coaching classes, CPR/First Aid Training, plus background checks in order to become a
certified coach was about $120, but I am being reimbursed whatever I spend through Elder High
School, therefore my budget is effectively $0.