Positive Coaching Alliance Connector

We at Positive Coaching Alliance and the Institute for International
Sport (IIS) are excited to announce the 2010 Sports Ethics Fellows as part of National Sportsmanship Day (NSD). Dan Doyle, the visionary founder of IIS, which has pioneered NSD for more than two decades, asked PCA to collaborate in promoting NSD several years ago, and we were proud to do so.

It is so wonderful to learn about the great work Sports Ethics Fellows
are doing all across the U.S. As in previous years, this group of Fellows comprises diverse individuals who are all working within their networks

and with the tools at their disposal to make sports a better experience for youth athletes.

PCA and IIS hope that naming these remarkable individuals as Sports
Ethics Fellows will provide them with a larger platform from which to
effect positive change. The Fellows of 2010 have committed to using that
platform to speak, write and act to extend the movement to make youth
sports a positive, character-building experience for every youth
athlete. All of us who care about youth sports as a means of developing
Major League People are lucky these people are doing their thing.

So without further ado, let's meet the Sports Ethics Fellows of 2010.
Join Dan Doyle and me in congratulating them and wishing them further
success in their crucial work by commenting on the Life Lessons from the Playing Field blog.--Jim Thompson

Solomon Alexander, Director, St. Louis Sports Foundation
Solomon Alexander leads the St. Louis Sports Foundation's Sportsmanship Initiative, a series of programs designed to make St. Louis a model community for good sportsmanship. The Sportsmanship Initiative seeks to improve the experiences of young athletes by reaching out to coaches, parents, officials, athletes and fans to pursue ideals of respect, civility, integrity, and fair play. The Foundation, in conjunction with the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance, annually conducts the AT&T National Sportsmanship Awards. Alexander also runs a sportsmanship blog at http://stlsportsmanship.blogspot.com/.

Joe Drape, Sportswriter for The New York Times and author of Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen
Joe Drape has written extensively about youth and high school sports. His book profiling Smith Center (KS) High School Football Coach Roger Barta is an inspiration to anyone who cares about developing youth through sports. School and organizational leaders, coaches, parents and athletes all can benefit from the life lessons Barta teaches and Drape illuminates in his moving prose.

Mark Duncan, Athletic Director, The Shipley School (Philadelphia)
Mark Duncan is a former All-America lacrosse player at Lehigh University. He brings a keen focus on character-development to the student-athletes he serves and extends that effort to his counterparts within the Philadelphia area's Friends Schools League. Mark also leads lacrosse camps, incorporating former college stars, and has opened The Shipley's School's facilities to underserved players participating in LEAPS (Lacrosse Education Attitude Perseverance and Success).

Mark Hyman, Author of Until it Hurts: America's Obsession with Youth Sports
Mark Hyman, a journalist who frequently writes about youth sports, gave insight and hope to sports parents, and by extension their children, through his unsparing examination of his role as sports parent. Until it Hurts is Hyman's unflinching look in the mirror, where he sees some ill effects of his behavior on the health and athletic career of his son. By enduring and sharing that pain, Hyman has spared pain for many others.

Mark Krail, Football Coach and Athletic Director, Pioneer High School, San Jose, CA
Mark Krail's football teams have won league titles while maintaining a reputation for playing with honor and dignity and exemplifying the virtues espoused in the California Interscholastic Federation's (CIF) Pursuing Victory with Honor program. In Fall 2009, while compiling an undefeated regular season, Krail piloted a new aspect of Positive Coaching Alliance's Triple-Impact Competitor^TMprogram, using weekly talking points on how his players can have impact at three levels, improving themselves, their teammates and the game as a whole. CIF recently named Krail one of 13 "Model Coaches" for 2009-2010. He also founded the Coach's for a Cure golf tournament, which he hosts annually to raise money for cancer research.

Richard Lawrence, Director of Athletics, Mount Saint Charles Academy, Woonsocket, RI
Richard Lawrence decided, based on Dan Doyle's Five Principals of Honorable Competition, to implement an initiative about five or six years ago in which the varsity sports team captains at Mount Saint Charles are asked to promote and model honorable competition on the playing field. The captains also write stories about their experiences and share them with the school community.

Tom Mezzanotte, Executive Director, Rhode Island Interscholastic League, Providence, RI
As the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL), Tom Mezzanotte has worked tirelessly with the member schools, their athletes, coaches and fans to promote the tenets of sportsmanship and ethics in sports. These lessons have provided the RIIL's student-athletes with the foundation necessary to build character and the positive values of humility, hard work, and integrity in sports and in life.

Laura Mitchell, CEO, Sports Dreammakers, Los Angeles

Laura Mitchell inspires and instructs student-athletes in pursuing avenues available to them through sports. A former collegiate basketball player and coach, she presents keynote speeches around the U.S., emphasizing the importance of academics and a systematized approach to pursuing college scholarships and handling the recruiting process. She is the author of such publications on these topics as The Map of Your Future and The Smart and Savvy Parents' Guide to Helping Your Teen Reach Their Athletic Dreams. She is currently co-writing a book for student athletes with former Denver Broncos Super Bowl MVP Terrell Davis and Denver Broncos Super Bowl Champion Byron Chamberlain.

Scott Myers, Executive Director, World Sport Chicago
Scott Myers leads his organization - the legacy of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics - in creating and expanding youth sports opportunities in Chicago. World Sport Chicago conducts youth-facing initiatives, such as international youth soccer tournaments and beach volleyball tournaments. With a focus on sport as a vehicle for social, health and character development, WSC is partnering with local and national organizations to launch programs in swimming, badminton, wrestling, weightlifting archery and track. WSC's latest initiative is Coach for Chicago, which matches people who want to volunteer to support a youth program in the city with organizations looking for support.

Amy Nakamoto, Executive Director, DC Scores, Washington, DC
Amy Nakamoto spearheads an after-school program that provides roughly 700 children in underserved communities with training in soccer, community service and creative writing. She also serves on the board of directors of the SportsChallenge Leadership and Education Alliance, which develops high school and college leaders through workshops and summer programs. Nakamoto also leads trainings for youth and high school sports coaches, parents, organizational leaders and athletes as a Positive Coaching Alliance Trainer.

David Nisbett, VP, Sports Operations, 78th Precinct Youth Council, Brooklyn, NY
David Nisbett uses sports to expand opportunity for youth in his community, including the creation of an innovative sports-management internship program that provides area high school students with opportunities to work in a sports organization, officiate competitions and coach younger athletes. The unique advisory board Nisbett has helped assemble for his organization includes leaders currently or formerly working for the New York Mets, the Brooklyn Cyclones and the Brooklyn City Council. In this way, he integrates 78th Precinct Youth Council into some of Brooklyn's most prominent institutions while also affording youth the chance to interact with, learn from, and aspire to emulate advisory board members.

Jack O'Malley, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Scranton, PA & Chair, Bochicchio Sports Character Initiative
Jack O'Malley, Ph.D. is chair of the steering committee of the Bochicchio Sport Character Initiative, which was founded to promote positive coaching and to foster the character development of young athletes by teaching them respect, responsibility, and sportsmanship. Additionally, O'Malley has championed National Sportsmanship Day celebrations as part of the University's ongoing initiative to promote sportsmanship not only in its own sports education classes and athletic programs, but throughout the community. O'Malley has been Associate Professor of Psychology at Scranton since 1971.

Peter Sabin, Director, Eureka Youth Soccer Club, Eureka, CA
Peter Sabin is a pioneer in implementing and tracking the results of the sportsmanship initiative within his youth soccer organization. Serving 1,600 players, league officials this season assessed only four red cards and 19 yellow cards in the 2009 season. Sabin also is an outspoken advocate for sportsmanship in contact with leaders of neighboring youth sports organizations and in Northern California media outlets.

Steve Stanford, Palma Ceia Little League, Tampa
Steve Stanford led fundraising and the overall effort to rebuild the clubhouse in his league's park after it burnt down. The clubhouse now stands as the centerpiece of a gleaming facility that is home to four fields serving more than 600 youth baseball and softball players. Stanford also spearheads an effort to aid underserved leagues by inviting them into clinics and other training opportunities at Palma Ceia Park. The league's mission statement reads, in part, "In a safe and park-like setting...teaching the importance of winning the game while, at the same time, building character, instilling sportsmanship, and providing a forum to learn valuable life lessons."

Bill Wells, Columnist, Springfield Republican, Springfield, MA
Bill Wells writes Youth Sports Spotlight, a periodic column that explores issues and trends in youth sports, mixed with healthy doses of opinion and humor. He also frequently profiles notable youth and high school athletes in his community with great sensitivity and depth, including everyone from the most prominent local high schoolers to a 9-year-old swimmer battling Tourette's Syndrome.