Last year, the Rhode Island Interscholastic League began introducing a number of new initiatives to improve the athletic experience for the more than 20,000 high school students who participate in the 28 sports offered by the league over the course of the fall, winter and spring seasons.

It began by implementing a fundamentals of coaching course that all high school coaches in Rhode Island are now required to take.

The league then hosted a leadership conference for student-athletes last fall at the Ryan Center.

This spring, the new RIIL Foundation awarded its first series of grants to assist high schools planning to host programs that promote leadership, sportsmanship and character.

Now it’s on to the athletes’ minds and bodies.

On June 3, the inaugural RIIL Student-Athlete Wellness Program will be held at the Johnson & Wales University Harborside Campus in Cranston.

Free and open to all Rhode Island high school student-athletes, the program will include workshops on nutrition, conditioning and recovery, as well as mental and emotional training.

“We have a very distinguished committee,” RIIL executive director Tom Mezzanotte said of the Wellness Committee. “Their knowledge and commitment is fantastic.”

The Wellness Committee is chaired by Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts and includes athletic directors, athletic trainers, nutritionists, a doctor, a sports psychologist, a physical therapist, a professional athlete and the School Health Program Manager from the R.I. Department of Health.

Mezzanotte advises anyone interested in participating to contact their school’s athletic director.

The alcohol lowdown

If all the other risks, dangers and legal ramifications associated with drinking alcohol aren’t enough to deter teens, they should consider how it affects their athletic performance.

In a lecture given to approximately 700 athletes and parents at Barrington High as part of a program called “The Life of an Athlete,” John Underwood of the American Athletic Institute explained just what kind of a negative impact alcohol can have on the body.

Several things Underwood encouraged his audience to think about:

Drinking alcohol after training negates the training effect.

Drinking alcohol hinders your body’s ability to repair muscle fiber, especially your fast-twitch muscle fibers.

Training hormones are diminished for up to four days after drinking alcohol.

Drinking to the point of intoxication can undo as much as two weeks of training.

Alcohol can cause an athlete to become severely dehydrated.

Drinking alcohol can lower an athlete’s immune system.

Players who drink are twice as likely to become injured.

An athlete’s reaction time can be affected even 12 hours after drinking alcohol.

The effects of a hangover have been shown to reduce athletic performance by 11.4 percent.

EG’s Davis to be a Buckeye

Tom Davis has signed a national letter of intent to attend Ohio State University this fall. A second-team All-Stater in the weight throw indoors last winter, the East Greenwich senior is currently ranked fourth (206 feet, 3 inches) in the U.S. for the 12-pound hammer throw.

Davis is planning to pursue a degree in political science with a minor in business at Ohio State. He has received an athletic scholarship and will throw the indoor 35-pound weight for the Buckeyes.

Seminars well-attended

Rick Marshall reports that 41 coaches and 138 athletes representing 32 schools took advantage of the first series of regional clinics hosted this spring by the Rhode Island Track Coaches Association and sponsored by The Bill Falk Fund of the R.I. Track & Field Foundation.

“Our clinicians – Colin Aina, Thom Spann, Clarke Lowery and Anne Rothenberg – provided expert technique advice for coaches and personal instruction to track and field athletes for hurdles, relay passes, sprint starts and high jump,” said Marshall, co-founder of the foundation. “The feedback … indicates that this is a very important offering.”

Marshall will pass along the dates of future clinics as they become available.

cthorn@projo.com