When Cari Bohm told friends that her volleyball teammates at Illinois had very different beliefs than hers, they asked her: "Why are you still friends with them?"
Their assertiveness confused Bohm. "They're my teammates," she told them. "We have to find common ground."
In an often-divided world, teams unite individuals with different backgrounds to focus on a common goal. Even if you don't agree, working together isn't an option.Â
"If I don't talk to my setter, I'm not going to get set," Bohm said. "It's forced me to find common ground, and now so many people who I would have never become friends with naturally are my best friends because we were forced to find common ground."
When the opportunity arose for Bohm to attend the NCAA's Common Ground program, she quickly said yes.
"I realized I don't want to lose that ability or experience of connecting with people who are very different from me once I leave true team spaces," Bohm said. "That's why I came to Common Ground."
The NCAA office of inclusion and the Common Ground Leadership Team hosted its eighth annual Common Ground program Tuesday through Thursday at the NCAA national office in Indianapolis. The event brought together nearly 70 student-athletes, coaches, athletics administrators and university staff from 15 faith-based, private secular and public universities for three days of educational sessions, intentional dialogue, relationship building and action planning for university teams. Â
Each school applied to the program with the permission of its president, selecting multiple representatives so each campus team could discuss specific challenges faced at the school, as well as campus strategies and resources. The team model also offers support to individuals and a broader campus network for planning and action.Throughout the program, campus teams developed action plans to take back to their campuses.
Eli Adams, a women's volleyball player at UConn, came to Common Ground to learn from student-athletes and administrators on other campuses.Â
"What I learned is we're all going through very similar things, just in a different font. We're all struggling with getting people together and creating community, but we all have different barriers, and we can learn a lot from each other."
Related:Â 5 UConn representatives find Common Ground at national office.
Some of those barriers come from different cultures coming together on a team. Other times, it comes from not having an open and honest dialogue with one another.
"It's eye-opening, because sometimes I just assume that I don't have common ground with some of my teammates," said Cate Zack, who is on the women's gymnastics team at Hamline. "At this conference, I've realized that I probably have more common ground on my team than I think."
LeMoyne-Owen's Kyndall Stewart said Common Ground inspired her to go beyond the surface level in her conversations with her teammates.
"We could have more common ground, and I just don't know," the senior women's volleyball player said. "I want to have those conversations of 'Who are you and how can we be closer as teammates and maybe even as friends?'"
Common Ground is guided by its vision to create a model of collegiate athletics that is safe and welcoming for people of all faith perspectives, gender identities and sexual orientations. This approach aims to equip and support members to develop Common Ground initiatives on their campuses.
During Common Ground, the student-athletes had time to talk among themselves, sharing their experiences on campus. The program equipped them with tools for having intentional and meaningful dialogue with their teammates and peers.
"A lot of people have different things they don't talk about and issues you may never know," said Evan-Nichole Whitaker, a women's soccer player at Hampton. "Being here taught me how to be an outlet for them back at school and make sure they feel welcomed in a safe space."
Chanel Azong, another Hampton women's soccer player, added, "Even if the team is going through a bad phase, when you're close with your people, it just makes everything easier and that little bit better."Â
Leaving Common Ground, Azong feels like she has the tools to open those doors for her teammates to engage in dialogue to connect. Illinois' Bohm echoed this.
"I came into it thinking finding common ground was finding things we both agreed on," Bohm said. "What's changed is realizing sometimes common ground is you can disagree. It's about mutual understanding, not mutual agreement."
"You might not agree, but you can understand what drives them and gets them out of bed in the morning," UConn's Adams said. "You can still learn what's important to them, and that's why we do it."
