After two weeks of bad news and violence, want to see something that works? CHAMPPs at East High works

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Every night we have to deliver tough news about our community and the last two weeks feel like they’ve been among the most difficult, but there are good things happening and News10NBC exposes that tonight.

Aliyana Robinson is a freshman at East Upper School and on the varsity basketball team. She’s in the school’s CHAMPP program.

Desiree Garrick is a freshman track athlete on a Wegmans scholarship at the U of R and was one of the first CHAMPP students at East. It’s a program that teaches how to train safely, how to eat well and how to stay healthy.

"Just give it your all. One hundred percent," Robinson said.

"It definitely helped me to have a clearer mind-frame the next morning and having more energy throughout the day to do my work in school," Garrick said.

CHAMPP stands for the Center for Human Athleticism and Musculoskeletal Performance and Prevention and it was the idea of Dr. Michael Maloney, an orthopedic surgeon and head of Sports Medicine at URMC.

Center for Human Athleticism and Musculoskeletal Performance and Prevention by News10NBC on Scribd

Dr. Michael Maloney: "I think the important thing is the commitment – that we’ve been there, we’re going to continue to be there, we’re not leaving."

The idea was: Get kids in the city the same access to training, healthy eating and mental health coaches the kids in the suburbs get.
Since CHAMPP started in 2018, 97 students graduated.

There are 17 enrolled now. In an email, URMC wrote CHAMPP "holds two cohorts per academic year, one in the Fall and one in the Spring. There is also an adjusted cohort in the summer, a shortened program preparing fall season athletes. 60 total sessions are completed each academic school year. CHAMPP includes a 2 hour program, three days a week: Starting with pre-training nutrition and completion of UR PROMIS, followed by a one hour CHAMPP training block, and finishing with a dinner and tutoring block."

A URMC report said CHAMPP students showed better skills and fewer injuries but it said the most surprising benefit was the "psychosocial impact on female participants."

"They were able to reduce anxiety, improve mood, reduce depressive symptoms and pain." (See pages 14 -17)

Brean: "If you could describe CHAMPPs program in one word, what would it be?"

Shaun Nelms, Superintendent, East High: "Responsive. It just uses athletics and nutrition and academics to give students exactly what they want."

Brean: We’re going through some tough times in the city right now especially with teenagers. And I started to think today that our community ought to hear about something that’s good."

Nelms: "We can’t ignore there are some students who are being unproductive. But the vast majority of students show up every single day looking to get a great education… CHAMPPs is not about creating the next elite athlete. it’s really about creating an opportunity for kids to understand who they are spiritually, how to take care of their bodies but also to be able to share that knowledge with their community."

Desiree Garrick is one of two CHAMPP students on a Wegmans Scholarship at the U of R. Her goal is to return to East to be a teacher and coach.

Monday, the state extended the partnership between the U of R and East for three years. Since U of R started managing East four years ago, the state says the dropout rate went from 41% to 15%.

The on-time graduation rate went from 33% to 85%.