Schools

Athletic director comes to practice

Chase Tollefson | Student Correspondent

Billy Emerson, athletic director at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, practices with the varsity girls soccer team. COURTESY

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Billy Emerson, athletic director at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, practices with the varsity cheer team.COURTESY

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Billy Emerson, athletic director at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, practices with the varsity girls volleyball team. COURTESY

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Billy Emerson, athletic director at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly, practices with the varsity football team with coach Michael Grandizio. COURTESY

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“Everything matters … Overachieve! Team-over-self #TeamPVI” 

These are the words written on a bracelet given to each of the fall varsity athletes at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly. Billy Emerson, athletic director, handed these bracelets out to his athletes with the intent of inspiring unity, selflessness and hard work. 

Emerson made a personal appearance to distribute these bracelets to teams and decided to participate in one of each fall team’s practices. He did ball skills at soccer, played defense at field hockey, ran routes at football, went all out on the cheer floor, and put in maximum effort at all the other practices too. Emerson did it all and loved every second. 

So did the athletes.

“It was such a fun time with coach Emerson,” said freshman Lilly Driscoll, member of the cheer squad. “He laid his heart out there on the floor.”

Emerson agreed and spoke about how hard he had to work. It was a bit tiring maybe, but an incredible learning experience for Emerson. “Participating in the practices made me really appreciate how hard our athletes work to be better,” he said. 

It was a great time for the athletes as well.

“Coach Emerson coming out to play with us was an amusing experience, but we could see that he actually wanted to learn about how our team works,” said football captain Gavin Colby.

Emerson said that he wanted to see what it was like to do a “day in a life” of a student-athlete.

“I wanted to talk to the athletes about what it means to be a Panther, about being a good teammate, and about how everything they do matters. Every decision that we make comes with a consequence; it might be a positive or negative consequence, but something will happen as a result of that decision. If our student-athletes take this approach with everything they do in their lives, they will measure their choices before making those consequential decisions,” he said.

Emerson wants his athletes to take the lessons learned on the field and apply them in the real world.

“What Mr. Emerson said about consequences really resonated with our team,” said field hockey captain Anna Viglione. “We are very conscious of the fact that everything matters, and we strive to make a positive impact.”

Emerson’s concepts of integrity, teamwork and work ethic perfectly exemplifies PVI’s vision statement: “St. Paul VI Catholic High School — a caring, Catholic community where we inspire the extraordinary in one another.” Extraordinary is a fitting word to describe the school, students, our faith, sports programs and athletes. Emerson said, “We strive for greatness here at PVI, and that is what our athletic program is built upon.”

With this solid groundwork, coaches have been hard at work with their dedicated athletes all season, driving toward a successful end. If the athletes at PVI continue to work hard and work together toward that common goal, the programs will continue to show upward growth each year.

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