ELLERBE — As the new year turns, physical education teacher and coach Allen Adeimy continues his UNC-Greensboro dissertation study concerning Ellerbe Middle School’s intramural program.
As highlighted in an ROSports feature last fall, Adeimy’s early-morning intramural program is studying the positive impacts on overall school improvement and student growth.
Adeimy, who is the school’s baseball coach, assists with all of its athletic programs and helps coach the Ellerbe/Cordova football team, is halfway through his fourth year of UNCG’s Doctorate of Education in Kinesiology online degree program.
In his first three years, he’s already successfully completed over 40 hours of coursework at the doctoral level and has made the transition from “doctoral student” to “doctoral candidate.”
The only thing separating Adeimy from earning the formal title of “Doctor” in front of his name is writing an approved dissertation, which he began at the start of the 2019-2020 school year.
The EMS intramural program is a team sports oriented league, which runs during the 20-minute homeroom period each morning. Each "season" lasts the span of the nine-week grading period, and includes both regular season and postseason tournaments.
Adeimy’s program offers four different sports options for play, including: volleyball (first nine weeks), basketball, indoor soccer and European team handball during the last quarter of the school year.
Wildcat students sign up at the start of each nine-week grading period, and can play all or any combination of seasons based upon their interest. The intramural program is open to both boys and girls, and all grades are eligible for participation (except sixth grade for volleyball).
“Typically, anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of our students at EMS are participants in any given season of intramurals,” Adeimy said. “During the second nine weeks this year, there are 97 students participating in basketball, which is 42 percent of our student body.”
Students sign up for the program, which is free for the 2019-2020 school year, during physical education classes. Adeimy creates a master list of boys and girls, and in most seasons, there are two leagues formed, one for boys and one for girls. Students from all three grade levels are mixed together to form the teams.
“One of the main goals for the program is to ensure fairness and fun, and great effort is put into compiling teams that are even,” Adeimy, who is in his eighth year at Ellerbe, said. “This is accomplished by taking the master list of students and ranking them on skill level in the particular sport.”
Adeimy added this is done anonymously, with only him knowing the rankings and using his observations from gym class to create fair teams. Once the players are ranked, a decision is made as to how many teams will be formed for each league.
Teams generally have between six to eight members. Using the rankings, “teams are formed with meticulous effort to ensure that each team has a fair chance to compete.” Once the teams for each league are done, they are assigned a team name (usually a collegiate mascot) and a team jersey color, which they will keep for the entire season.
Teams compete together for one season, and are reshuffled when a new season begins (based on a new master list). Adeimy displays teams in two areas at Ellerbe Middle, and students can see their team members, name, color and regular-season schedule for that season.
The intramural program is implemented using the Sport Education Curriculum Model, one of the more popular ways to carry out physical education experiences.
“This model was developed by Daryl Siedentop in 1984, and puts the responsibility of the experience on the students,” Adeimy said. “They not only having the role of being participants, but also act as a coach, a scorekeeper, they set up and break down equipment, and sometimes serve as officials and referees.”
Other trademarks of Sport Education are the functioning of teams over time, seasons, a culminating event and recognition and acknowledgment of success, Adeimy continued. Other than the officiating piece, which is overseen by Adeimy and fellow coach Derek Anderson, “the EMS intramural program incorporates most of these Sports Education Foundations.”
League champions are recognized at the Awards Day programs at the end of each nine-week period and are given champions T-shirts to be worn at school.
Part of Adeimy’s completion of his doctoral degree is to collect and assess data from the intramural program, among other things.
According to Adeimy, as of the start of January, he’s collected data on attendance, academics (GPA) and behavior on each intramural participant. Each participant has also completed a survey giving their ideas and reflections of participation in the program.
During the next two months, the data will be analyzed and a conclusion to the study will be developed.
Additionally, Ellerbe Middle School received a Pee Dee Electric Bright Ideas Education Grant for $1,150 to fund the program. This grant was recently received at a reception at Ella's Ballroom in Rockingham on Dec. 13.
Adeimy, along with EMS faculty members Andria David and Deb Sutherland, will present the final details and effects of the program on school improvement in a session at the North Carolina Association for Middle Level Education Conference in Greensboro in March.
Stay tuned for the final results of the study, which will be released by ROSports in later this spring.
Allen Adeimy and sports editor Kyle Pillar contributed to this article.
