By Cooper Pierce
Their ears are open and their eyes are locked on him as he walks around the room. The student-athletes that fill the room listen to his stories and his message.
“Did you do what you said you would do?” announces Coach Rich Maloney to the eager listeners around him.
With a smile on his face, Ball State’s head baseball coach gives them his advice on how to be a good leader.
As more and more schools around Indiana start their student-athlete leadership programs, Athletic Director Tilmon Clark realized this would be a great opportunity to implement an idea he’d been thinking about for a while.
This is the second year Delta has held meetings for its student-athlete leadership team, the Fly Team. The name is centered around Delta’s mascot, the eagle.
During the last year of his tenure as the athletic director at Monroe Central High School, Tilmon had the idea to start a student-athlete leadership program but was unable to get the idea off the ground before he made the switch to Delta.
“It’s an idea that I carried over from my old school,” Tilmon said. “It’s important to me to continue to grow it.”
This year, the number of students has grown from less than 30 to more than 50. He has also been able to bring in more speakers this semester than last year.
Tilmon watches games and meets and listens to recommendations from coaches. Then, he sends out invitations to the students that he feels would be the best fit for the team.
Although he’s proud of what it has become, Tilmon isn’t satisfied yet. He’s hoping to grow it with more students joining so he can connect with as many student-athletes as possible.
Three guests have visited in 2024. Tilmon brought in Colts offensive guard Danny Pinter last spring. Indy Ignite volleyball player Kylie Murr and Ball State baseball head coach Rich Maloney have come to speak this semester.
Tilmon plans to hold two or three meetings per semester during SRT. This allows him to take his time in making sure he brings in the best speakers he can.
Spacing the meetings out also helps the members balance the team with the rest of their schedule.
“Everyone’s busy so I don’t want to add another thing to everyone’s plate,” Tilmon said.
Now student-leaders can attend the meetings and not worry about being overwhelmed.
Right now, the Fly Team’s only purpose is to help student-athletes in the school grow their leadership skills and hear advice from proven leaders. But in his vision for the team’s future, Tilmon wants the students to help him organize events and promote Delta’s athletics.
Tilmon believes that the advice from the speakers will help Delta’s student-athletes become worthy of leading their teams. He uses his connections to find the best speakers that he knows will be able to relate with the team.
When Tilmon was serving on the Ball State football staff, he met Danny Pinter. Danny came in and talked to the team about how they could be better leaders inside their team and also take what they learn from their coaches and use them to better lead their teams.
Last quarter Tilmon brought in Indy Ignite player Kylie Murr, who grew up in Muncie and graduated from Yorktown. She discussed the importance of overcoming your own obstacles and how being a better teammate first can translate to being a better leader.
The latest speaker, Coach Maloney, seems to have made the best connection with the team. His message to the students was about having integrity, taking responsibility, and putting in the extra work.
One member of the Fly Team who felt really connected to Coach Maloney was junior Jordan Bunch. The part of Coach Maloney’s speech that stood out to her most was how, as a man of God himself, Coach Maloney’s faith has helped influence him as a coach.
Jordan is a captain on the varsity girls’ soccer team and also a varsity swimmer.
She works with the other team captains to come up with the team’s values for the season and tries to make sure she is always positive and uplifting toward her teammates. Even though she is not officially labeled as a captain of the swim team, she thinks of herself as a leader inside the team and someone that her teammates can still come to for help. She looks at these meetings as a way to strengthen the leaders within Delta’s athletics.
After having gone to only two meetings, Jordan has seen an improvement in her leadership. She says she feels inspired by the speakers and always tries to listen to what they say so she can use their advice to be a better leader in her sports.
“Even at the (swim) practice we had, after we got to meet with (Maloney), I felt like I was being a better leader and set a better example for the team,” Jordan said.
Jordan knows that being a leader is lonely and that it is hard to unite your whole team together. This is why she recommends joining the Fly Team to any student-athlete who is striving to improve their leadership skills.
Another student who felt the most connection with Coach Maloney was senior and varsity swim captain Zach Baty. His role, as well as being a leader, is to help organize practices and team events.
Zach has been able to go to every meeting for the Fly Team. What he enjoyed the most was Coach Maloney’s slogan.
“His main thing was ‘Did You Do What You Said You Would Do,’” Zach said. “I think that’s a great slogan.”
Advice like Coach Maloney’s is just what Zach was looking for when he accepted the invitation to join the team. Some of the keys to his success as a leader are what he learns from these meetings and the insight from high-level coaches outside the school.
Zach knows that, as he is already a leader, it is important that he continues to improve himself as a leader. But, he also knows that it is important for less experienced leaders so that they are ready to take over when the time is right.
“When the seniors go out, the juniors will come in and start leading,” Zach said. “If you have no experience then it’ll be harder.”
Like Tilmon, Zach and Jordan feel there is still plenty of room for improvement in the team. They both had the same idea.
Instead of just listening to coaches, they say they want to hear what the other athletes have to say. They would like more feedback and ideas from other students so that they can better understand how other school captains lead their teams differently.
Although Coach Maloney has had the biggest connection with Zach and Jordan, Danny Pinter and Kylie Murr have been just as good of speakers. And Tilmon knows this.
He says he can’t disclose who he plans to have as a speaker in the future, but he assures us that the next speaker will exceed expectations as well.
“We’ve had some really good ones so I’ve got to keep delivering,” Tilmon says. “The bar is set high.”
