June 27, 2001

Brad Byers, a rising senior from Hudson, Ohio, represented the University of North Carolina at the 2001 NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., from May 28 to June 1. Byers, a member of the UNC wrestling team, was one of 300 student-athletes selected from a pool of more than 1,000 nominations.

The goal of the conference was to provide the nation's top student-athletes with an opportunity to participate in activities aimed at making them better leaders on their campuses and in their communities. As a result of participation, attendees enhanced their communication, decision-making, problem solving, critical-thinking and collaborative skills.

Byers, who serves as co-coordinator of Carolina ACT, a student-athlete mentoring group, and is the wrestling team's representative to ACC Outreach, took time to speak with TarHeelBlue about his experiences at the conference.

TarHeelBlue: How did you feel when you found out you had been selected to participate?

Byers: "I was really honored and surprised. To represent Carolina is a great honor, and I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to go."

TarHeelBlue: What kind of issues were stressed at the conference?

Byers: "Two of the main themes of the week were diversity and problem solving. Finding problem areas in all of our communities and universities and developing a plan to attack those problems. What the conference was all about was developing agents of change so that student-athletes could go back in their communities and instigate change."

TarHeelBlue: The university community or the community at large?

Byers: "I think the main point of the conference was for us to go back into our universities and our athletic departments and instill change, but I think that transfers over into all parts of the community."

TarHeelBlue: What types of activities did you participate in?

Byers: "There were a number of different activities. One was we had a percussionist come in with about 350 percussion instruments. He had everything from huge drums to wooden shakers to blocks and bells. He showed us how to use each instrument and then proceeded to pass them out to each individual. We were in a circle in this huge room, and 350 of us had an instrument. The instructor was in the middle and he was talking about the importance of each instrument in making a unified sound. He then began to direct us in playing music, and it really sounded like we knew what we were doing. We did some really neat things. The instructor was able to make a connection between the importance of each individual instrument in making the music and the importance of each individual in the larger community. We saw how each individual in the community is important, how diversity is important. We saw how it's just as important to have the bells, shakers and wooden blocks, as it is to have the big drums.

"Another activity we did that had more to do with active leadership was a dinner we had one night. Our group combined with another group to make our own dinner. The conference provided different foods, but nothing was ready. There wasn't a list of ingredients, we just had to find everything. So we had 48 people (in our group) and they just said, 'Go.'

"We had a grill over here, a pasta station over there, but no instructions, so we had to get together with our team and decide what everyone wanted to make. It was really mass chaos, but there was an important lesson in that you can't always be a leader. Sometimes you have to be a follower and let other people direct traffic and get out of their way. It's like the old saying, too many chiefs, not enough Indians. We needed Indians in that.

"Another thing we did was participate in some problem-solving games that were amazing. We started out doing "trust falls" where you have a partner and you put your arms across your chest and fall back and trust your partner to catch you. That was a really basic example of how you have to trust your group members and your teammates.

"We then progressed into some problem-solving situations. There was one situation in particular that I was absolutely amazed we figured out. We had two coffee cans, one half-filled with beans and the other empty. They were in the middle of a circle made of rope with a 20-foot diameter. The objective was to dump the beans from one coffee can to the other and pull the can out of the circle without extending our arms over the perimeter of the circle. We were given six five-foot ropes and an un-inflated inner tube. We had 25 minutes to solve this problem and we were able to do it in less than 20 minutes."

TarHeelBlue: How did your group figure this out?

Byers: "First, we came up with about 10 different plans, all of which were radical and crazy and didn't seem to have what it took. Then someone mentioned that if the inner tube is stretched out that it would probably have enough friction to pick up the can. We tied four pieces of rope to the inner tube and stretched it out around the circle. Then we put the square the tube made over the can. We were able to twist and tighten the rope until it was tight around the can. Then we made a lasso with the other two ropes and picked up the first can with the tube and put the lasso underneath the can so once the lasso was on, it would tip the bottom out from under it and tip the beans into the other can. After we had the beans in, we set down the can by releasing the tension on the rope and we picked up the full coffee can and moved it out of the circle. It was amazing. We were one of the only groups to accomplish it. Our team got so excited.

"Another activity was a situation where we split our group of 24 into two groups of 12 with one group blindfolded and no idea what was going on. I was in the other group and we weren't allowed to talk. Our instructions were to line up all 24 of us in a line, on a rope, in order of our birthdays. And we had to get everyone to sing to a certain rhythm.

"Since they couldn't see and we couldn't talk, we had to communicate through other means. And it was their ability to talk that helped us out. We were able to physically let them know if they were saying the right things."

TarHeelBlue: How did everyone figure out the birthday part?

Byers: "Someone in my group wrote "birthday" on someone else's back, and they were able to figure it out. Then everyone shouted out their birthdays, and we moved them into place. Once we had everyone in place, we started clapping the rhythm. They clapped instead of singing so I had to actually go up to one guy and move his jaw with the song and he figured it out."

TarHeelBlue: It sounds like you had a pretty impressive group?

Byers: "Some of the people in my group were amazing individuals. We were really able to work well together and listen to each other and point out the best ideas."

TarHeelBlue: Did you know anyone there?

Byers: "Actually two of my high school classmates from Walsh Jesuit were there. A wrestler at Iowa State and a baseball player at Michigan State. It was pretty amazing. They were making a big deal about it."

TarHeelBlue: How do you feel you can apply the lessons you learned at the conference to your senior year at Carolina?

Byers: "There are a lot of things I feel I can do back in the community. There are principles of leadership that I think I can bring back and share with many of the people I work with. In Carolina ACT, I really look forward to sharing some of the leadership experiences I had the opportunity to encounter. With the ACT Executive Committee in particular, so the leadership of ACT will become stronger and trickle down from there. For example, I plan to do many of the activities I participated in with others in ACT. I actually received a packet of community-building and team-building exercises like the ones I participated in. I want to bring that back to ACT and, hopefully, strengthen the leadership of ACT from the top down."

TarHeelBlue : Anything else you'd like to add?

Byers: "One other theme of the week was developing a student-athlete advisory council on university campuses. Carolina already has one, and it's coming along and strengthening at every meeting. But the interesting thing at the conference was hearing everyone discuss issues at their campuses. There were plenty of opportunities to speak in an open forum to discuss problem areas at the campuses. And one of the things that I took away from this week was how lucky we are to be at Carolina as student-athletes. I wish everyone had an opportunity to go to a conference like this and see what issues other universities are dealing with. A lot of times we might not fully realize the opportunities, programs, facilities and coaches that we have. Everyone in our athletic department should understand how good we have it at Carolina. We have a first-class program at Carolina, and it shows."