Story taken from a Chicago newspaper article written by Paul LaTour.

Naperville Central basketball and water polo player Claire Fleming is a leader for the Redhawks.

Naperville Central veteran athletes teach freshmen the right path to take.

April 20, 2009 By Paul LaTour For The Sun

For the most part, all attention was focused toward the 11 Naperville Central juniors and seniors standing in front.

Considering the other group was a collection of more than 40 freshman athletes from Central, keeping them that quiet was an impressive feat.

Still, some voices could be heard toward the back of the second-floor room in the White Activities Center at North Central College. A few weren't paying attention to what the older students were telling them about leadership and making wise decisions regarding alcohol, tobacco and steroids.

As the discussion continued, junior Claire Fleming, a water polo and basketball player, peeled off from the front group, heading toward the place where the voices were coming from. She didn't say anything, but as she approached the back, the voices suddenly fell silent.

It was the move of a veteran teacher. That it came from a teenager barely older than the group she was directing shows how Fleming exemplifies the J. Kyle Braid Leadership Foundation. The organization was created in 1994 to identify teenage athletes with leadership potential.

On Wednesday they demonstrated that potential with the Freshmen Leadership Conference, an all-day event geared toward teaching leadership skills to the youngest high school athletes.

"I was there in case something went wrong, and I didn't even need to be in the room," said Barry Baldwin, Central's boys golf coach who was one of three teacher sponsors at the event. "They kept control. From beginning to end, they never asked me for anything. It was awesome to see."

Realizing there were no programs targeting freshmen, the group decided this conference would be a good place to start.

"Today was a great way to show them the direction they should be going in order to be leaders in the future," said senior Drew Crawford, The Sun's two-time boys basketball Player of the Year who has signed with Northwestern. "Influencing them in a positive way was an important thing."

The event was designed by the JKB students. Throughout the day, the freshmen were led through a series of leadership-building exercises that stressed teamwork.

In one activity, pieces of paper were put on the floor stretching across the room. Written on each sheet was a percentage ranging from 0 to 100 incrementally by 10. The freshmen were then asked to stand in front of what percentage they believed was true regarding high school athletes' use of marijuana, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, alcohol, cocaine and steroids.

When asked about marijuana use, most of the freshmen stood at 30 percent or higher. They were then told the correct percentage was 15 percent.

"That's good to know not as many people smoke marijuana as you think," Crawford told the group.

The JKB athletes worked on the conference as a group. The idea first formulated last summer, and putting together the details took months.

"It's really exciting we're able to put it together and it all worked," senior swimmer Erin Lamb said. "We've had a lot of meetings together -- a lot of good bonding. Last weekend we had some very hard-core, long meetings."

As the freshmen boarded the bus back to Central, the leaders stayed to clean up and discuss how everything went during the day. They were obviously pleased with how smoothly the event was carried off.

"It went really well, a lot better than we expected," said Colin Rook, a junior soccer player. "We had a lot of activities and we got them up and moving. They seemed to be having fun."