Significantly, just like any other career, personal development plays a crucial role in determining the success of that career. Through assessment, an individual can tell that the athletes in South Central and Southeastern United States are physically, emotionally, and intellectually committed to both their sports and academic endeavors to compete and achieve to their limits. However, the achievement lies in an integrated skill-set, firm commitment, and leadership from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) members, proper time management, teamwork, and physical and emotional health. In order to become the source of the best athletes like Glen Davis, John Wall, Reggie King, Tim Tebow, Cam Newton, Herschel Walker among others, we ought to abolish discrimination of sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, social and economic status, disability and religion. Not only has this paradigm worked in high-level achievement in sports but also in other careers worldwide. Therefore, both SEC and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) should prioritize athlete personal development to boost the academic potential, as well as, the physical and intellectual perseverance of our students.
Athlete development is a comprehensive approach that includes the significant associates of the sporting system such as teachers, coaches, and young athletes, intending to offer quality character and skills experiences to the young athletes to realize their potential for long-term success. Balyi et al (2013) assert that l ong term athlete development (LTAD) programming creates a channel for young athletes to become top-rank sportsmen and women through integrated guidelines in physical and sports activities based on human development and maturation principles. Besides that, Athlete Development Literacy (ADL) programming improves performance in sports when the athletes are pursuing their career and after their retirement from sports through the player, business and personal development respectively.
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According to the NCAA, currently, almost nine million young people are involved in team sports, with only less than 10% playing in NCAA collegiate sports. Unfortunately, by 15 years of age, a more significant percentage of the young athletes who are not formally recognized by the NCAA terminate their athletic career pursuit due to overtraining injuries and lack of agreement between them and the organizations involved. In the past sporting excellence was conceptualized according to the number of world records, Olympic medals, and championships (Miller & Kerr, 2002) . However, the new era bases performance excellence according to performance and personal excellence. To eradicate the past trend in the sports industry, throughout the athletic career, SEC focuses on creating a more systematic athlete programming to develop the talent of the young athlete comprehensively.
Consequently, the athlete development programming conducted by the SEC focusses on all the three aspects of ADL, which improve the capabilities of a young athlete to compete physically and intellectually not only in the schooling environment but also in the outside world. SEC’s systematic psychophysical training helps our young athletes to escalate their skills in balance, posture, coordination, and speed. Such training provides practical cognitive, physical and psycho-social skills that reinforce the young athletes’ physical, emotional and self-regulating skills essential throughout their careers and lives (Miller & Kerr, 2002) . Additionally, these programs geared towards minimizing dropouts while fostering positive peer relations, sustained participation, and leadership skills which can be integrated by the young athletes even in their lives after sports.
Unquestionably, college athletes not only in the South Central and Southeastern region of the United States require significant models of athlete personal development literacies to help them maneuver throughout their lives. For instance, the ADL model trains athletes to improve their potential in the field by grasping knowledge and developing their confidence and skills using any available resource. LAADR (2020) argues that the model facilitates athletes to achieve overall success within and outside the athletic arena through peak performances throughout their player, personal and business developments. Additionally, the ADL model comprises three essential literacies that are necessary for any athlete's performance in sports when they are pursuing their career and after their retirement from sports. Brenner (2016) affirms that s uch literacies include player development literacy which boosts the athlete's achievements as an athlete as well as their success in their sport-free lives.
Additionally, player development escalates any athlete’s fitness, tactical and technical attributes, periodization, performance psychology, and sport-specific behavior. On the other hand, personal development literacy improves qualities and skills essential in the life of an athlete during and after sports such as good character, professionalism, leadership, mental health and emotional awareness and control. Lastly, the business development literacy plays a core role during the life of an athlete during sports since it helps them to create additional income through personal branding, media, endorsements, sports business acumen and social responsibilities (LAADR, 2020).
In conclusion, the main principles underpinning player development at youth level include early diversification, early specialization, long-term athletic development, physical literacy, personal development literacy, among others. The challenges faced by athletes after they retire from sports is that most of the past models used to train the athletes when they were young, mostly focused on their lives during sports. Neglection of the perception of what their lives would be after sports led to depression and drug abuse by the majority of them since the sport's profile they had built over the years did not matter anymore. Therefore, to avoid such devastating lives, training organizations ought to incorporate programming models such as ADL and LTAD to protect the well-being of young athletes during and after sports. All in all, a massive investment of relevant resources is required in the SEC to improve the talents of our school-athletes.
References
Balyi, I., Way, R., & Higgs, C. (2013). Long-term athlete development . Human Kinetics.
Brenner, J. S. (2016). Sports specialization and intensive training in young athletes. Pediatrics , 138 (3), e20162148.
LAADR. (2020). Athlete Development Literacy » Laboratory for Athlete & Athletics Development & Research » University of Florida . [online] Available at: http://laadr.hhp.ufl.edu/index.php/research/athlete-development-literacy/ [Accessed 28 Jan. 2020].
Miller, P. S., & Kerr, G. A. (2002). Conceptualizing excellence: Past, present, and future. Journal of applied sport psychology , 14 (3), 140-153.
