As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I learned more than I ever thought I would about foundations due to an unexpected crack in ours. Something that I learned that I didn’t mention last week is that your house’s foundation is likely not visible to you.

While you might have a concrete slab, some foundations are of the basement kind or pier and beam. There’s also something called crawl space. Anyway, even if you can’t see the strong foundation that supports you and your house, the point is that it’s there doing its job.

I had drawn the comparison to our strong foundation at Independence with the hiring of our leadership infrastructure, but an equally important foundation is currently being laid: that of our charter student groups. What I mean by that is that we are in the process of bringing coaches and other staff on board, and so our student athletes are beginning the hard work of establishing programs, as well as their legacies.

Different from your house, this foundation work is visible. Our first such example was our football team holding its first workout at Briar Woods High School’s weight room earlier the other week (thank you Briar Woods!). We had 27 students report to work that day, to begin laying a foundation. I could not have been happier with that showing as our team works to build a culture. At our second workout on Wednesday night, we had four additional students attend. That was great! And the hope is for the next one that even more students come out as excitement and the word spreads. I’m proud of the work and commitment these young men are putting in, and they will be remembered for it—that’s another one of those perks of opening a new school.

I am not highlighting football because it is the most important activity in the school; rather, it is because it is the first group that has been cleared to begin this work. I anticipate other teams getting together soon as more coaches come on board—in fact we have a meet and greet on Tuesday for our cheer, cross country, golf, and field hockey coaches, and I’m sure that once students meet them, they’ll be ready to put in work. And the same will hold true for other groups like band, theater, and chorus once those positions are filled. The point is, these charter students who are willing to sacrifice and sweat are also our foundation, and early indicators are that it is a strong one.