Men's Basketball | August 03, 2016

KALAMAZOO, Mich.- The Western Michigan men's basketball team will spend the next two days going through a leadership and team-building session called "The Program."

The Program is a company that works with college athletics teams across the country to develop leadership and mental toughness through drills and exercises. This will be the third time in the last four years the Broncos have participated in the preseason activity.

"I can't express my level of excitement enough, as I know what the kids are getting ready to experience," said WMU head coach Steve Hawkins. "We only have three current players that went through our last training. The timing of this is perfect as the guys will receive this leadership training going into our foreign trip."

The Broncos will participate in The Program sessions beginning Thursday at 4 p.m. and again on Friday morning at 5 a.m. Each session lasts roughly three hours.

The goal of The Program is to provide personal development, leadership development, and team building through shared adversity. While the services are often intensely physical, the focus is to create good leadership and teamwork that enable reliable performance at the highest levels of competition.

Leading Western Michigan through The Program for the third time will be Jake MacDonald, a Major in the Marine Corps Reserve who has done several active tours of duty in the Middle East and has received commendations for combat valor as well as a Purple Heart. Jake graduated in 2000 with a degree in English from Tufts University, where he was a four-year starter and captain of the football team.

Western Michigan began the first of its official full-team practices earlier this week leading up to its European trip later this August. The Broncos will play four games over their stay, Aug. 21-31, making stops in Amsterdam, Ghent, Normandy and Paris.