Every year, Justin Thorington puts out the call.

Thorington, Traverse City Central’s athletic director, tells each of his 26 varsity coaches that he’s accepting nominations for the Student Athlete Leadership Organization (SALO). He’s looking for those kids who have a knack for guiding their peers.

“That doesn’t mean I want the most talented players, or even your team captains, because sometimes that’s a little bit of a popularity contest,” Thorington tells The Ticker. “What we’re looking for is kids who are already identified as leaders within their programs, or have the potential to be great leaders.”

Once he has nominations, Thorington and his fellow administrators select kids for SALO, which consists of around 40-50 students that meet every month over lunch to work on developing and fine tuning their leadership skills. The program, now in its fifth year, has mentored more than 150 students (some participate multiple years).

Odds are that none of these kids will be professional athletes, and most of them won’t even play sports in college. But all of them will go on to be members of society, and Thorington’s goal is to make them agents for positive change.

“We get these kids in their formative years, which is super powerful because we’ve got the opportunity to help shape who they become,” Thorington says. “We’re giving them skills that will be super attractive in terms of being candidates for jobs and stuff like that, but even more important than that are the skills that allow them to be great citizens.”

Part of that is teaching these kids that great leadership is ultimately about selflessness.

“I really like to stress that your job as a leader isn't necessarily to boss people around or use that as a position of authority,” Thorington says. “Your job as a leader is actually self-sacrifice and service. Your number one job as a leader is to make those around you better.”

Each SALO meeting involves open and small group discussion about a particular leadership topic. There’s also opportunities for kids to discuss their challenges and share their successes. Sometimes there are guest speakers on a particular topic (one last year was NFL tight end Darren Waller).

The group also takes action outside of the SALO meetings based around three concepts: Central Strong, TCAPS Strong and SALO Strong. Central Strong involves going to and actively supporting non-athletic events. For example, SALO members attend the school band’s expo to cheer on their fellow Trojans.

“The idea behind Central Strong is to take the power and the voice that our student athletes have as probably the most visible aspect of our school and use that platform to then create this inclusive school environment,” Thorington says. “It’s all about promoting and hyping up and shining light on some function of the school that isn't typically in the limelight.”

TCAPS Strong involves SALO kids going to elementary schools and supporting/interacting with elementary kids to “brigde the gap between current and future Trojans,” Thorington says. SALO Strong used to consist of various community service activities, but now is a partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwestern Michigan in which each student serves as a big brother or big sister.

“So leadership development comes from the monthly meetings, but then also by putting what we learn into action by navigating these different leadership responsibilities that they've got to complete each semester,” Thorington says.

The program is also good for the school as a whole, Thorington says, because active leaders within the student population can help nip problems in the bud. There was a time recently when the student section at volleyball was involved in some crass behaviors, but it was quickly resolved after Thorington asked his SALO students to intervene.

“Something that’s really hard for a kid to do is to check one of their peers in the moment, but what a good skill for them to have long term,” he says. “We talk a lot about the fact that leadership takes courage.”

Lorelai Zielinski is a senior who plays track and basketball. She’s in her third year of SALO, and she’s greatly enjoyed the program.

“There’s been some hardships on teams I have been on, and I think what I’ve learned from SALO is being able to include other people in conversations and how to talk with people,” she tells The Ticker. “I’m learning how to communicate with my teammates better.”

Central Principal Ben Berger calls Thorington's work with SALO "innovative and truly upstream thinking." Since the creation of SALO, the school has seen a great increase in sportsmanship on and off the field, Berger says. 

"Justin is not your stereotypical AD. He wants to complement the work we do from 8-3 and use sports as a vehicle to grow these young people into great members of society," he tells The Ticker.

Photo: Thorington running a SALO meeting.