Zachary Benedek – Elizabeth Forward

Zach is a rising senior at Elizabeth Forward High School, and he’s the starting quarterback for the school’s football team. He’s also a participant of Coaching Boys Into Men, an evidence-based program designed to empower athletes as leaders in school culture to model healthy, respectful behaviors for their peers.

CBIM provides coaches with helpful tools to discuss critical topics with their players such as respectful relationships, communications, boundaries and more. The program recognizes that coaches are uniquely positioned to teach life lessons that their student athletes carry into adulthood.

“This has had a huge impact on my life and the lives of my teammates,” Zach explained. “Our coach is able to teach us these things because we’re in a comfortable setting.”

The program brought Zach and his teammates closer together. “It allows us to take what we learn and apply it to not just our lives at school, but our personal lives outside of school,” he remarked. “As teammates, we hold each other accountable.”