WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT
INTRODUCTORY LETTER FROM MATT BASSETT
So how did we translate each of the core values into daily activities and actions? Check it out here!
I hope you are getting comfortable hearing and using the phrase "All In, All One, All Dolphins." As importantly, I hope you, as stakeholders, are instilled with a sense of great pride for what this galvanizing message can represent for our entire community. Since we rolled this tag line out, I have often been asked how we arrived at it. It was actually a pretty natural outcome. We were looking to describe our athletic department's culture in a simple yet meaningful way.
During the 2013-14 academic year, we were in the closing stages of our ongoing work to uncover the core values representative of a deep and intentionally shared culture in our athletic department. We refer to that culture as "Inside the L". From there it gets pretty straight forward. You're either "Inside the L" or you're outside looking in. So if you're "Inside the L", you're "All In, All One, All Dolphins"!
“Inside the L — a distinctly Jesuit intercollegiate athletic experience at Le Moyne College”, is intended to represent all of our stakeholder groups—coaches, student athletes, administrators, parents, alumni, boosters, and the Le Moyne campus community— all of whom care deeply about how we are delivering on our commitment to be a “nationally premier Division II athletic program in the Jesuit tradition”.
It was a process that began for us back in the fall of 2011 by engaging our coaches, administrators, and student athletes with the question, “What does a distinctly Jesuit intercollegiate athletic experience mean to you and what would it look like in action?” We conducted lectures, seminars, team and individual meetings, while inviting experts from both on and off campus to help us search for answers.
We did not set out to simply recite a mantra replicating the values inherent to Jesuit education. Our deepest aspirations were to translate those values into the daily activities and actions of our athletic community. Once we began to uncover and to more fully embrace the values and traditions of Jesuit education, we quickly came to understand that many of those values and traditions aligned perfectly with the most aspirational goals of intercollegiate athletics.
The touchstone we developed that represent our core values appears here:
What has become apparent to us is the realization, in very practical terms, that we are defining a very distinctive culture. “Inside the L” has become the framework for a deeply intentional, shared, and sustainable culture for Le Moyne College athletics. We have developed a culture based on the most fundamental Jesuit ideals and core values, translated into the highest aspirational goals of intercollegiate athletic participation, which can be monitored and measured for predictability and success.
“Inside the L” for me, has become a vision realized. It is a stake in the ground that says: This is what we believe in! This is what we are inspired by! We share a passion to live it! We will be unwavering in our commitment to sustain it! We are….
All In.
All One.
All Dolphins!
With Gratitude,
Matt Bassett Assistant Vice President and Director of Athletics
How we put it into practice: