Yellowjackets Awarded myPlaybook Grant

BILLINGS, Mont. – Montana State Billings was one of 54 schools to earn a $2,000 grant from the NCAA for the myPlaybook program, Director of Athletics, Dr. Gary Gray, announced Friday.

“We are very grateful to the NCAA for receiving this grant so that we can continue to educate our student-athletes with regard to drug and alcohol abuse,” Gray said.  “We are also very appreciative that Darla Tyler-McSherry will continue to serve as the primary facilitator with our student-athletes in this program.”

The myPlaybook program is an evidence-based program designed to prevent alcohol and other drug related harm among college student-athletes.  Funding for the development of the program is being provided by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and funding for a large-scale evaluation of the first course of the program is being funded by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in collaboration with Division II and NIDA.

The Yellowjackets are one of 18 schools from Division II, along 26 schools from Division I and 10 from Division III to be awarded the grant. The myPlaybook program is required for all freshmen student-athletes and transfers.  The NCAA was going to award the grant to 40 schools, but due to a high interest and a high number of grant requests, the NCAA upped the number to 54.

The program is an easy to use method of meeting NCAA minimum guidelines for drug education by using interactive web-based learning exercises.  Student-athletes will have the opportunity to give immediate feedback and the freedom to complete the program any time or place with internet access. 

myPlaybook has tools that will track student progress and track dissemination of the NCAA banned substances list.  Students will have access to the REC (Resource Exchange Center) hosted by the National Center for Drug Free Sport, Inc.

MSUB Health Educator, Darla Tyler-McSherry, felt that a new direction was needed for awareness for student-athletes about drugs and alcohol.

“Health Services and the Athletic Department have been working together for the last five years to provide awareness about drugs and alcohol to student-athletes.  We felt it was time to go in a new direction and we applied for the grant and were selected.”