{"id":31953,"date":"2025-11-12T12:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T12:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/31953\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T12:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T12:32:08","slug":"12-lehigh-valley-middle-schools-to-become-part-of-groundbreaking-student-athlete-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/31953\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Lehigh Valley middle schools to become part of groundbreaking student-athlete program"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AthLife Foundation<\/a> will provide grants to 71 schools across eight states and Washington, D.C., for the 2025-2026 school year, expanding academic and mentoring support to thousands of middle school and high school student-athletes.<\/p>\n

The grants will fund Academic Athletic Coach<\/a> positions in schools in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and the nation\u2019s capital. The positions help student-athletes succeed academically while building confidence and leadership skills through their connection to sports.<\/p>\n

The expansion includes several notable regional developments. <\/p>\n

In Lehigh Valley, funding from St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/a> will extend the program to middle schools, creating what organizers say is the first region in the country where multiple school districts offer connected programming from seventh through 12th grade.<\/p>\n

The Lehigh Valley schools listed as recipients are:<\/p>\n

Broughal Middle School<\/p>\n

East Hills Middle School<\/p>\n

Easton Area Middle School<\/p>\n

Francis D. Raub Middle School<\/p>\n

Harrison-Morton Middle School<\/p>\n

Nitschmann Middle School<\/p>\n

Northeast Middle School<\/p>\n

Pocono Mountain East Jr High School<\/p>\n

Pocono Mountain West Jr High School<\/p>\n

South Mountain Middle School<\/p>\n

Trexler Middle School<\/p>\n

Whitehall-Coplay Middle School<\/p>\n

High schools in these districts also received funding, as did others in the region, including Phillipsburg High School. <\/p>\n

Baltimore City Public Schools will expand grant support to 16 schools, building on the city\u2019s existing Academic Athletic Coach programs.<\/p>\n

Schools in New York City, Atlanta, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Port St. Lucie, and Miami-Dade also received grants.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudent-athletes deserve to believe in themselves as much in the classroom as they do on the court,\u201d said Jewel Clark, a University of Pennsylvania Hall of Famer and the AthLife Foundation\u2019s Academic Athletic Coach of the Year. \u201cOur role goes beyond academics; it\u2019s about instilling confidence, building strong relationships and helping students see themselves as leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark said the real impact shows when students report life-changing results beyond just graduation.<\/p>\n

Jim Steeg, the foundation\u2019s board chair and former senior vice president of special events at the NFL, said the expansion demonstrates the program\u2019s effectiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have known for more than two decades that this is a much-needed profession in secondary education,\u201d Steeg said. \u201cFor any funding partner and the schools that invest in this, the return on that investment and impact can be substantial.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AthLife Foundation, established in 2010, is a national nonprofit that helps schools create the Academic Athletic Coach position. The coaches work year-round to develop programming that connects students\u2019 passion for sports with academic achievement and personal development.<\/p>\n

Generative AI was used to draft this story, based on information provided by the AthLife Foundation. It was reviewed and edited by lehighvalleylive.com staff.<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AthLife Foundation will provide grants to 71 schools across eight states and Washington, D.C., for the 2025-2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-31953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}