Three young athletes returned from “the time of our lives” this week at Playa de Flamingo, Costa Rica. Mineola seniors Kapri Riley, Keilee Riley and Riley Weekly participated in the Girls Leadership Academy for Service and Sport (GLASS), July 27-Aug. 8. 

The academy is a part of Beyond Sports Incorporated, a service organization which uses sports as a vehicle for service and personal development. The company offers 10-day programs at their self-contained campus in Playa de Flamingo for scholastic athletes throughout the United States.

All three Yellowjacket athletes were nominated by Mineola soccer and cross country coach Shelby Turner. Candidates to the academy must obtain a personal nomination of their coach in their primary sport. Weekly was nominated as a soccer player, while the Riley sisters were nominated as cross country runners. 

GLASS is unique in the field of women’s sports development. As Beyond Sports spokesperson Annika Wachtman explained, “We seek to identify and further develop the future leaders of women’s sports in America.” 

Wachtman described the three pillars of the program: sports training, community service and leadership development.

“Each area of focus has roughly the same amount of time in our program,” she stated, “but the key is that we are bringing these emerging leaders together.”

Wachtman offered that the company has received incredibly positive feedback since the program’s inception four years ago. Based on the reactions of the three Lady Jackets, she gained plenty more from this last class. 

They were quick to describe the experience as overwhelmingly positive. “Highlight of my summer,” “happiest I have ever been,” “100% recommended,” they offered without hesitation. 

The parent organization, Beyond Sports, is an American success story. Two collegiate athletes, who had gone on to coach basketball and baseball internationally, recognized a need to leverage collegiate athletes to conduct leadership training, using sports naturally as the vehicle. Beyond Sports was founded in 2009.

GLASS was a natural offshoot of the larger initiative, focusing specifically on female scholastic athletes. 

Presently, a staff of eight collegiate athletes runs the academy at Playa de Flamingo. They represent experience in the sports of soccer, basketball, volleyball, lacrosse and softball.

“The athletic training portion of the program is excellent,” Weekly described, “there are group fitness sessions and individualized sport instruction.”

Each academy class uses a single keyword as a point of focus. For the physical training, the values of strength, agility, quickness, core strength and speed are highlighted.   

However, to the three recent graduates, it was not the excellent physical training which was most memorable, but an array of associated experiences. For Keilee it was the day-sail out into the Pacific and along the Costa Rican coast which was most memorable. For Kapri it was the experience of hosting two busloads of little children for a play-day at the academy, and for Weekly it was the natural beauty of the area and the environmental clean-ups which were most appreciated.

The differences in culture and varying degrees of modernity were also evident to the three. 

Their class numbered ten and included athletes from Connecticut, Iowa, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and a fellow Texan from Forney. Wachtman detailed that GLASS has had athletes from 41 of the 50 states through the academy.

One overriding feature of the training was just how vested the staff was in each athlete’s well-being. “They really cared about us, always inquiring about how we were doing, before executing any schedule,” Kapri noted.  

As Koni Riley – Keilee and Kapri’s mother – explained, that care also included ensuring the safety of the students and tracking each athlete’s arrival to Costa Rica.

“Security was a huge concern for us, but they really did a good job shepherding the participants, and they provided us the security protocols beforehand,” she stated. 

The 10-day adventure, which also included zip-lining in the mountains, surfing lessons, horse-riding on the beach, and lessons in cooking local cuisine, is not without cost. Many participants conduct fundraisers, use scholarships or contributions from local groups and friends to secure the necessary fees. It was a combination of all of those, including an early birthday gift, which sent the three on this great excursion.

Although athletics is the vehicle used by the academy, it was shared leadership discussions which provided most of the head work for the attendees. Each day’s instruction focused on different leadership traits. For the three Mineola athletes, the concepts of “connection” and “purpose” resonated the most.

The effect of the investment in the academy will be on display throughout the year, as all three are members of the cross country and track teams. Additionally, Kapri will be playing basketball, while Weekly will be busy year-round playing all sports available to her.