Coach Libby Boghossian Picks Up Where SafeSport Leaves Off
As a member of Riverside Boat Club, Libby Boghossian rows on the Charles River. She likes to bring her juniors girls to this spot to talk about being part of a strong community of women who row.
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Teens are super aware of stranger danger from a really young age, but most of them have genuinely never thought about misconduct from known adults.
Using SafeSport training as a springboard, Coach Libby Boghossian leads in-depth discussions with her Brookline High School rowers about team policies and the concepts of consent, power imbalance, and coercion. She’s helping to create a culture for her young athletes where everyone is enlisted in the effort to keep their rowing community safe.
QUICK LOOK
00:00 - Episode lead-in
01:54 - Rachel & Tara talk SafeSport, "when we were kids," and "kids nowadays"
07:45 - Key point: the kids are crucial
08:40 - The Huddle: Get to know Libby in a minute
09:22 - Rowing Week on a scale of 1 to 10: 6
09:55 - Hot Seat Q&A
16:28 - Libby's rowing origin story is a doozie
24:25 - Libby's first coaching gig while in college, and the quirks of coaching novices
33:07 - A (very) brief intro to SafeSport
34:26 - Why SafeSport and conduct are important to Libby and her rowing community in Boston
38:11 - SafeSport training for teens: making sure the whole team is on the same page
46:38 - Inside the teenage mind when determining unpleasant vs abusive treatment by coaches
49:07 - Kids are critical in terms of being on the front lines and seeing behaviors and activities first
50:13 - Red flags to look out for and a deep dive into Libby’s discussion for her junior athletes
58:27 - Feedback from rowers and parents about Libby's curriculum
1:03:10 - What Libby wished she knew as a teenager
1:04:07 - Libby’s hope for the future of the rowing community
1:05:43 - Abuse can happen at all levels, getting kids involved in spotting and reporting incidents
1:08:22 - Resources
1:09:14 - Teenagers and maturity
1:10:00 - Sign off
EPISODE Mentions
MEDIA
Conal Groom, USRowing Coach, accused of abuse, suspended for seven years (Washington Post)
REGATTAS & EVENTS
Head of the Charles
RESOURCES
Women's Rowers Professional Network
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network)
BHS SHARP Program
Minor Athlete Abuse Prevention Policies MIT parenting teens website
Five Basics of Parenting Adolescents
SCHOLASTIC & YOUTH PROGRAMS
Brookline High School Rowing
Choate Rosemary Hall crew
Windsor High School
UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS
Brown University women’s crew
Harvard University men’s lightweight rowing
This episode was written, produced, hosted, and edited by Tara Morgan and Rachel Freedman. Tara provides additional audio engineering and is our sponsor coordinator. Rachel manages the website, social media, and e-newsletter. Our theme music is by Jonas Hipper.