Navy SEAL Trains Big Red Teams
During pre-season training on campus, all varsity fall sports teams participated in a program called Stonewall Solutions, a leadership training and workout plan headed by former Navy SEAL and Division I athlete, Jason Kuhn. He gave an inspirational talk on Sunday, September 3, and led team workouts on Monday.
According to his website, Kuhn played baseball for the MTSU team and joined the Navy after the attacks on September 11, 2001. With a Master’s Degree in Global Leadership, Kuhn trains a wide range of clients, from high school athletes to CEOS of business firms. The Stonewall Solutions program is based on competitive exercises to help strengthen team cohesiveness, as well as a focus on improving individual performance and mental control.
Upper Neil Daily, a member of Exeter’s varsity football team, thought that the entire event aligned well with his team’s core values. “He told us that our body can go a lot further than our mind and that we have to overcome adversity,” Daily said. “He stressed that we shouldn’t go internal with our worries and concerns, and that we had to have a ‘team first’ mentality.” He particularly enjoyed when Kuhn talked about how if one player stopped a workout, it not only affects that one player, but the entire team.
Varsity football player Upper Michael Indelicarto also cited this as a particularly strong point of Kuhn’s talk. “During practice, when we do conditioning, the moment you start focusing on yourself and go internal, everything gets hard,” he said. “But I remember what the Navy SEAL guy said: to think about your teammates. When you remember that everyone else is going through the same thing and you try to get through it together, it all gets easier and just isn’t as hard or painful anymore. And the switch is that quick, just like that.”
Varsity soccer player and upper Garrett Kimball thoroughly enjoyed the workout plan taught by Kuhn. “The workshop was really great for team bonding,” he said. “It was just a series of different workouts and exercises that focused on teamwork.” Kimball cited an exercise where the soccer team arranged themselves in a line to do pushups and rested their feet on the shoulders of a teammate in front of them. “The point of the exercise was that if one person didn’t pull their own weight, the whole team wouldn’t be able to complete it.”
Upper Hannah Brown, a member of the girl’s junior varsity soccer team, enjoyed the surge in team chemistry, something she noted not only in her own team but in the other various sports participating in Kuhn’s program. “It was very inspiring to see all of the girls’ teams come together and be there for each other during the workouts,” she said. “Cheering each other on played a big part towards everyone’s morale and makes a lot more of a difference than you would think.”
Girls’ varsity volleyball player Lizzy MacBride took away from the talk exactly what Kuhn envisioned and hoped that all the athletes would: the importance of teamwork. “Sometimes I try to do stuff on my own and obviously, that just doesn’t work.” she said. The workout plan as compared to what the strength and conditioning trainers at Exeter put teams through, was quite different and challenging in different ways. Athletes saw that they were capable of a whole lot more. MacBride continued, saying, “It helped me find my limit and the extent to which I can push my body, especially in doing new things.”
The message Kuhn left behind resonated with Big Red’s athletes and aligned well with the mission of the athletic program. It was and is a message that will help every athlete who attended as they face the challenges of their seasons.