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    Photo Matt Bassett

    November 30, 2015

    Great Sports Live Inside the L

    Le Moyne's Jesuit identity is alive in the classroom – and on the basketball court, lacrosse field, and baseball diamond. On the Heights, athletic success isn’t just about statistics. It’s about the ways coaches lead and mentor 335 student-athletes, the community service projects that transform individual players into one cohesive team, and the way fans and even competitors are treated when they arrive on campus. It’s also about the ways in which student-athletes choose to live their lives, long after they have graduated from Le Moyne.

    “Inside the L for me has become a vision realized,” said Matt Bassett, assistant vice president and director of athletics. “It is a stake in the ground that says,"This is what we believe in! This is what we are inspired by! We share a passion to live it! We are unwavering in our commitment to sustain it.’”

    Inside the L is an approach to athletics at Le Moyne centered on the question: “What does a distinctly Jesuit intercollegiate athletic experience mean to you and what would it look like in action?” Members of the Le Moyne community, including student-athletes, coaches and parents, were asked to reflect on this idea during a series of lectures and seminars, as well as in team and individual meetings. Their goal was to translate the values most closely aligned with Jesuit education – for example, to be men and women for others, to strive for the more, and to find God in all things – into the daily activities of the Department of Athletics. It has since become the framework of what Bassett calls a “deeply intentional, shared and sustainable culture” based on the most fundamental Jesuit ideals.

    “I think the greatest strength of Inside the L is the emphasis on the development of the individual as a person, not just as an athlete,” said Madison Hahesy ’15, a graduate assistant coach for the women’s basketball team who was a guard on the Dolphin squad. “Leadership, service, transformational love, and total care of each person are just a few pieces of Inside the L. Our commitment to these ideas as a unit demonstrates a deep care for individuals and for their well-being. To me, this says so much about Le Moyne, and what a very special place it is.”.

    While Inside the L is now in its third year, the idea of the program originated in 2010, when the members of the board of trustees were discussing how to best position the athletics program at Le Moyne. What resulted was a charge for the College to become a premier Division II athletic program in the Jesuit tradition in a way that was intentional. Meanwhile, Bassett was in the midst of the Ignatian Colleagues Program, a nationwide initiative of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities to strengthen lay leadership through formation and focus on Jesuit mission and vision. Bassett and his colleagues across campus began to look at what a mission-led athletic program – one informed by Jesuit values – would look like in practice.

    “At our core, what we are striving to do is to cultivate a shared and intentional culture centered on five tried-andtrue Jesuit values of magis [the more], cura personalis [care for the whole person], being men and women for others, finding God in all things, and working for social justice,” Bassett said. “Then we are taking those values and translating them into everyday actions.”

    To learn more about life inside the L, read the upcoming issue of Le Moyne College Magazine.

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