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Looking Back on the First Tee Leadership Summit

This August, we held our first ever First Tee Leadership Summit in the unforgettable backdrop of West Creek Ranch in Montana. This event took place for two weeks, bringing together 20 teens each week from across the country to develop leadership skills through dynamic outdoor and team-building activities. Through collaborative workshops, First Tee’s core competencies of building character, self-confidence and resilience played a huge part of the experience, to explore the concepts of relationship building, positive risk taking, and character evaluation. We recently caught up with participant Benjamin Parris from First Tee – Denver to hear how this year’s event impacted him.

Benjamin Parris, First Tee – Denver

In Denver, I often hear the amazing experiences fellow participants have when they return from First Tee national events. Until the first week of August 2021, I had never experienced one for myself and I was not quite sure what to expect when I was selected for The First Tee Leadership Summit in Partnership with the PGA TOUR Superstore at Mr. Arthur M. Blank’s West Creek Ranch in Montana. As soon as I arrived at the airport, I knew it would be a special week as I was immediately greeted by fellow participants and alumni chaperones. When we arrived at West Creek, even more participants were eager to greet us and introduce themselves. I knew I had formed relationships almost immediately, and those only got better as the week went on. At the summit, we got to participate in activities such as horseback riding, archery, white water rafting, and other spectacular outdoor experiences. Also, during our days, we had the opportunities to listen to guest speakers like Dick Sullivan (CEO of the PGA TOUR Superstore), Ralph Stokes (the PGA TOUR Superstore’s Director of Partnership Marketing and former University of Alabama running back), Joe Shepard (a PGA TOUR Superstore Regional Manager), Stacie Monks (a PGA TOUR Superstore District Manager), and our keynote speaker Michael Vick (former NFL quarterback). We learned lessons in values, teamwork, skill sets, representation, and more. Each day at the summit had a different theme. Our themes were: “relationships are the foundation for leadership,” “positive risk taking,” and “my character is me.” While our speakers were able to give us insightful words and stories on these themes, we learned just as much from our outdoor experiences as we did from our speakers. On Tuesday, we focused on relationships and how trust is the foundation of every successful relationship. After hearing from Dick Sullivan and Michael Vick, six participants, including myself, departed for the ropes course while everyone else elected to horseback ride. When we arrived, we immediately had to build a relationship as we picked partners to ascend on a partner climb up a 30-foot wooden ladder. My partner Sam Gibbs from the First Tee of Fort Worth deserves a quick shoutout for putting her trust in me all week from the second we became partners at the ropes course. On Wednesday, we worked on taking positive risks. My first risk of the day was waking up at 6:30 after a late night to go on a sunrise hike. Let me tell you, the views in Montana were spectacular, it was very much worth the risk of not sleeping in. Later that day I took another risk by going on a 3-hour horseback excursion, by far the longest I had ever been near another animal, besides my dog at home. My biggest takeaway from learning about positive risks were to approach people who think differently than you so you can challenge your own thinking and to seek out your own mentorships. On Thursday, our final full day at the summit, we did a lot of self-reflection while thinking about how to own our characters. Stacie Monks began the day after another gorgeous sunrise hike. She posed the following question to all the participants. “What type of leader do you want to be?” She went onto discuss how to create a culture when you are leading others and how to empower them. Later that morning we had perhaps the hardest task of the entire summit, but also to me the most impactful. We were asked to complete this phrase. “This is what I believe about myself as a leader…” This wasn’t a simple sentence to complete, and to really answer the question, it required more than just a few sentences. To complete the thought, I had to reflect upon all the things I had been through that week at West Creek. I had to think about climbing with a partner, taking leaps of faith, the inspiration I had received from our speakers and workshops, and what I had learned from all the people around me. Later that evening, we sat around the fire pit as we listened and shared all 18 of us has discovered about ourselves as leaders. My favorite part of the leadership summit was the comradery all of the participants formed. I got the opportunity to make 17 new friends, who over the course of the week felt like family. I know that I’ll be keeping in touch with them for years and years to come and can’t wait until I can see them again. For me, the week made me feel like a true member of the greater First Tee family. I had never met a fellow participant from outside of Colorado, but now I feel like I’m connected to the First Tee everywhere I go. I can’t wait to stay involved with the program as I go to college and beyond. I want to thank the First Tee, PGA TOUR Superstore and West Creek Ranch staff one final time for giving me what was truly a life changing experience. The programming was phenomenal, and the experiences were irreplicable. I came back home truly knowing what type of leader I am and how I can continue to grow as a leader. I can’t wait to apply what I learned in Montana to our local programs in Denver as well as other extracurriculars I participate in. I feel honored that I was a part of the inaugural summit.
Hello The First Tee Family! Some of you may know me, while for some of you newer, up and coming members, I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting. Regardless, I’d like to begin by introducing myself, my name is Kortnie Maxoutopoulis and I am a The First Tee graduate. My hope for this news article is that I would share with you where I’ve come from, where I am now and how The First Tee has had a grand impact on my progression. My passion for golf began at a young age when I was introduced to the game while being raised in Pleasanton. I competed in the JGANC and other local golf events and eventually earned a scholarship to play college golf. I signed my letter of intent to play college golf at Rutgers University, NJ and then transferred to play for the TCU Horned Frogs. Following my collegiate career, I served as a graduate assistant golf coach at Georgia Southern University where I earned my Masters degree and I currently act as the assistant golf coach at Long Beach State University. The most incredible thing to reflect back on is how golf has been at the foundation of all these life transitions. Furthermore, the life lessons and relationships I have established through The First Tee have been the fondest and most influential. When I first heard of The First Tee, I became familiar with its stand-out mission, which was to impact the lives of young people by providing access to golfing resources while promoting a foundation of character-development and life-enhancing values through the game of golf. However our area did not have a chapter until Jetter Golf offered a site for The First Tee to begin in the Tri-Valley area. Within a couple years our chapter offered classes ranging from Par to Eagle level. In these classes, I learned the parallel between the 9 core values and the game of golf. I quickly recognized just how similar the game of golf was to life: from choosing to do the right thing in all situations (integrity) to learning the value of persevering through trials and adversity both on and off the course. I also had the privilege of attending The First Tee Open at Pebble Beach where I connected with professional golfers and developed friendships that continue on to this day. These experiences, which I had the honor to partake in, were of such value because I met like-minded individuals who were also taught through The First Tee that golf’s life lessons serve as a platform in launching us into any other circumstance that life may take us, with a foundation in revering character as the utmost standard. Currently, I serve as the assistant golf at Long Beach State, and as The First Tee graduate, I can honestly share that the principles I gained through The First Tee have been integral in influencing the style with which I coach. One specific area I can point to is the 3 goal-setting steps: (1) define your dreams and goals; (2) set goals that are positive and important to you; and (3) set goals that are specific and under your control. After being introduced to the team at Long Beach State, I observed that we had a lot of talent, but I identified that there needed to be a growth in team spirit and execution in order to be successful. Through team meetings we identified our team’s mission: Our Journey is growing in a Loving environment; Believing in one another; Sacrificing for each other; United to Compete. This mission not only defined our dreams (1), but it also specified the areas that were of importance to the team (2). The next critical step was to determine ways we could tangibly achieve this (3). Each month I spotlighted one of the qualities for the team by determining a “challenge” they had to accomplish. Along the way, the team began to realize they were GROWING into a United team through giving necessary time and attention to each of these areas. By the end of the season, we arrived at our Conference Championship with experiences that had contributed into our unification as a team, who was ready to compete! We knew we had put the work in up to this point and that the outcome was out of our control, all we could do was give it our all each day and watch where the chips would fall. Or otherwise stated, watch the putts fall 😉 Sure enough the mission we established, goals we set and commitment to doing things the right way, paid off with a BIG WEST CONFERENCE WIN! The First Tee has been instrumental in my own golf career, but more importantly has transcended beyond my own game to expand into impacting the lives of others. At the end of the day, golf is yet a platform, it does not determine our identity, but rather serves as a stepping stone as we look to live a life of integrity.