BY MELANIE CRABTREE
Special to the Monitor
The Athletic Leaders Council, known as the ALC, was a new club at Keystone Heights High School during the 2024-2025 school year.
This year, council members intend to continue the program, making it even bigger and better for 2025-2026. All student athletes are welcome to join; the council votes on leaders just like the student government.
This program works similarly to a student government that most individuals are familiar with, although they serve a different purpose.
The difference is that the ALC serves a main purpose to get students more interested and involved in athletics, to support other Keystone Heights Athletes at their events, and to give back to the community.
Every Friday, members of the ALC go to the Keystone Heights Elementary School for an event called “ High Five Friday,” where they greet the students at their bus or parent pick up, giving every child a high five to get them excited and ready to have a good day.
The members have a meeting once a month to discuss their ideas for different themes and dress-up events for the student section for all the sports throughout their seasons.
For example, they dressed up in pajamas for a varsity volleyball-themed “sleepover shutdown.”
During these meetings, they also discuss different plans of action and ideas for the school’s pep rallies to celebrate the different athletic seasons and other events.
This year’s Athletic Leaders Council is run by Ryder Thomas (President), Ashlyn Brown ( Vice President), Taylor Buchanan (Historian), and Rigby Morford (Secretary), who are led by program sponsors Jessica Marquart and Jakob Alvarez.
When President Ryder Thomas was asked how he prepared himself to take on the leadership role of the program for the year, his response was “ I prepare myself by making sure I know the date and themes of everything and showing up and showing out to everything!”
Sponsor Jakob Alvarez mentioned that his main goal as a leader of this program is to pass along the knowledge that he has gained over the years playing high school and college football and to be a positive role model for his members.
Alvarez stated, “If I can model the behavior that I want to see our students doing, it shows them that they can do it as well”.
This is a program that is built on leading and serving others to better oneself and what they bring to the table as a player and as a person, along with supporting other athletes. It is also designed to help members develop leadership abilities and standards that they can bring back to their teams and carry throughout their high school years.
More information about this program, along with the upcoming events they do, can be found on the ALC Instagram page @kh.alc.
