BETHLEHEM, Pa. — It is a student-athlete mentoring program expanding to all middle schools in Bethlehem, including the Broughal Middle School, through the Athlife Foundation.
The program has been successful at the district’s high schools, where current Broughal Middle School Assistant Principal Christopher D’Emilio previously worked.
“Kids that were ineligible, we had meetings with them to get them on the right track. Kids who were close, too, we had meetings with them to talk about what the next steps would be and we almost basically eradicated it,” said D’Emilio.
Now, all middle schools in the district are part of it.
An investment from St. Luke’s is helping to expand the program which, senior director of sports medicine John Hauth calls a difference-maker.
“Anything we can do to help students have that connectivity, stay eligible, have a successful middle school or high school experience, we want to try and support,” said Hauth.
Nora Lorady is one of the academic athletic coaches at Freedom High School.
“We want to help everybody we can and we’ve been doing a pretty good job of that, so we help them with our academics, we help them with mental health,” said Lorady.
Liberty boys basketball coach Nigel Long said through the program, everyone on the team has graduated.
“We’ve seen a tremendous uptick in our grades and our performance for our student athletes and it’s been a tremendous help for us,” said Long.
“I think the sky is the limit,” said D’Emilio.