Assistant Dean of Residential Life Trevon Bryant joined the Deerfield community this fall. Around campus, he is more commonly referred to as Deerfield’s “Mindset Coach,” as he aims to cultivate leadership, spread positivity, and motivate students.
So far, he has worked with multiple sports teams such as the Winter Rowing Concentration by joining their practices, working with team coaches, and giving inspirational speeches.
Mr. Bryant has worked with Lauren Sobczak ’24, goalkeeper and Captain of the Deerfield Girls Varsity Hockey team. Specifically, he helped Sobczak to improve her mindset as an athlete and find ways to be a positive influence on her teammates while recovering from an inury.
In their earliest meeting, Sobczak talked about how she was unable to reconcile her different attitudes towards hockey when practicing versus playing competitively. She said that she would focus on her fundamental skills during practice but forget them as soon as it was time to compete. Hence, Coach Bryant worked with Sobczak to approach games and practices with the same hardworking attitude, ultimately improved her skills as a goalkeeper.
Additionally, Mr. Bryant supported Sobczak through her hip injury and recovery. Sobczak recalled how Mr. Bryant helped her during this process and said, “he would swoop me up on the path, say that his door was always open and [kept] encouraging me.”
It was Sobczak’s talks with Mr. Bryant that helped her best realize her role as a senior captain off the ice. She took his advice of focusing on the smaller, intangible aspects of team culture by emphasizing communication and gratitude which has contributed to the success of her team.
“Sobs is in a very difficult position where she’s unable to be on the ice as a Captain, but I feel she’s been able to make her mark on the team,” said Izzy Cericola ’24, Sobczak’s teammate. She elaborated, “[Sobczak] communicates to the players individually, which I think is very effective because coaches aren’t able to give players that same [amount of] time… I get that time with her as she goes over my play and the little things that I’m doing that no one else seems to notice.”
According to Mr. Bryant, his environment and experiences growing up built his resilience. He recalled the time when he suffered a devastating knee injury from playing Division-1 football which dashed his hopes of playing in the National Football League (NFL). Soon after, he had to reorient his life as he channeled his energy into rehabilitation while studying for his Master’s degree.
As he looked back on his younger self overcoming adversity, he identified his reason today for becoming a motivational speaker and mentor for younger students: “I wanted to become the person I wished I had at that age.”
Mr. Bryant’s journey as a speaker began when he first recorded and posted videos on Instagram. He utilized the platform to share how he overcame personal challenges in athletics and school life. As people started reaching out to him with positive feedback about the videos, he realized that “what [he] was talking about was helping people.”
As Mr. Bryant’s Instagram videos gained more traction, he began receiving requests from local high schools to speak and mentor their students in person and online. Before coming to Deerfield, Mr. Bryant was also scouted by a professional speaking agency where he continued speaking at more colleges and authored the book chapter “Character is Your Ticket to the Promised Land” in From Letters to Leaders with other speakers in the agency.
Today, an essential habit that Mr. Bryant advocates for is gratitude in daily life. He said that being appreciative of the “small things that people don’t necessarily think about brings [him] a lot of joy and happiness when [he finds himself]complaining about whatever’s going on.” He cited health, shelter, and safety as simple privileges one takes for granted. His chalkboard in his room in the Student Life Office encourages the practice of gratitude. There, students practice gratitude by writing what they feel grateful for after meeting with him.
Looking forward, Mr. Bryant is excited to reach out to the greater student body through his weekly emails titled “Mindset & Motivation Messages,” or “M&Ms”, where he elaborates on learning points from a personal story. Finally, although Coach Bryant has a background in athletics and has been working mainly with sports teams, he says that his job as a mindset coach “is also about personal life skills that range from a variety of things such as relationship to self and others.” With his role as Deerfield’s first Mindset Coach, he hopes to teach others the importance of perspective for performance in life.