“Building and Maintaining Positive Culture” Course Now Available on NFHS Learning Center

In an effort to help students benefit from a more positive experience in high school sports, the NFHS has launched a new course titled Building and Maintaining Positive Culture, which is available for free on the NFHS Learning Center at www.NFHSLearn.com.

The course, which was created in partnership with the University of Washington’s Center for Leadership in Athletics, discusses healthy team culture characteristics such as trust, communication, transparency, support, care and others – all of which contribute to the overall satisfaction level for students.

The course also addresses challenges that coaches face in developing a positive culture and offers suggestions for mitigating those issues – noting that coaches must be both intentional and aware. The course helps coaches understand that they must communicate with students frequently, provide feedback, discuss goals, share concerns and celebrate growth.

"We are pleased to offer this new free course with our friends at the University of Washington,” said Dan Schuster, NFHS director of educational services. “This course is an excellent resource for not just building a positive culture, but also sustaining it with your team, no matter the sport or activity. We are thrilled to provide this to people across the country.” 

After an introductory session, the second chapter defines culture, followed by a chapter on practices to build a positive culture, including an intentional approach, co-constructing expectations and goals, utilizing routines, establishing and prioritizing relationships, incorporating student voice and autonomy, and building strong lines of communication.

The other major chapter addresses navigating tensions within a team, including overcoming challenges, lack of clear guideposts, a subset of voices, failure to adapt to seasonal or yearly changes, and working with disruptive team members. 

The Center for Leadership in Athletics at the University of Washington is a national leader in

academic programming in sport leadership, including its flagship graduate degree program in Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership  and undergraduate courses in sports and education; coach education and training, bringing research-based curriculum to sport organizations, schools and state associations; and research to practice initiatives, like the Ambitious Coaching™ Research Project and the CLA Research Briefs.

Originally established as the NFHS Coach Education Program, the Learning Center has evolved from just two courses for coaches (Fundamentals of Coaching and First Aid for Coaches) to more than 100 online education courses, over 75 of which are free, and recently surpassed more than 27 million courses delivered.

NFHS Learning Center course offerings extend across 17 different sports with sport-specific courses and performing arts programs. The Learning Center also serves 51-member state associations, more than 19,000 high schools and more than 12 million students. In 2022, the NFHS earned accreditation through Cognia, which signifies its commitment to high standards and continuous improvement.