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May 31 Deadline to Apply for Triple-Impact Competitor Scholarships
PCA has extended to May 31 the deadline for high school juniors to apply for Triple-Impact CompetitorTM Scholarships. The Triple-Impact Competitor Scholarship Program, sponsored by Deloitte and Thrive Foundation for Youth, has expanded from its Northern California
roots to also include the metro areas of Chicago, Houston, New York and
Washington, DC.
Triple-Impact Competitor Scholarships honor ethical
student-athletes who have a positive impact on three levels:
- Personal
Mastery: Making oneself better
- Leadership:
Making one's teammates better
- Honoring
the Game: Making the game better
If that fits the description of a current high school junior student-athlete you know in any of the five regions our program covers, please direct them here for more information and a link to the online scholarship application.  |
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PCA Launches New Second-Goal Parent Online Course
Coaches, parents, school and organizational leaders -- and most importantly, youth athletes -- will benefit from PCA's just-launched Second-Goal ParentTM Online Course.
The new course -- named for the PCA concept that winning is one goal of youth sports, along with the second, more-important goal of life lessons -- presents the latest in youth sports and educational psychology. Parents who use the course are equipped to help their children get all they can from sports in terms of performance and life lessons.
The course also features video of such PCA National Advisory Board Members as:
- PCA National Spokesperson and 10-time NBA Champion Coach Phil Jackson
- Boston Celtics NBA Champion Coach Doc Rivers
- Olympic Gold Medal Swimmer Summer Sanders
For a video explaining more of
the course's benefits, click the image below.
You will appreciate the
increased interactivity of the course and the same research-based, ready-to-use tips and tools you have come
to expect from PCA.
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Honoring the Game Award Winner: Roswell Youth Lacrosse Association
 As part of the National Youth Sports Awards
Program sponsored by Deloitte, PCA
Connector periodically profiles winners of the Honoring the Game Award for excellence as an educational
athletic organization. This week, we feature Roswell (GA) Youth Lacrosse Association.
Somehow it's fitting that Roswell Youth Lacrosse Association
(RYLA) hosts its major tournament on Mother's Day weekend. After all, the
suburban Atlanta organization does an extraordinary job serving roughly 500
youth athletes and their families, while drawing inquiries from parents in
neighboring communities, who plan to leave their leagues to join RYLA.
"Because we've implemented Positive Coaching Alliance, we've
got parents telling us they're pulling their kids from other programs to go
into ours," said David Hyman, RYLA's vice president and PCA coordinator. "We
reached a tipping point last spring, when we got all our coaches trained by PCA, and that's when I started getting
e-mails from parents saying their son or daughter was introverted or in a shell
until lacrosse helped them come to life."
The Mother's Day weekend tournament, the Roswell Youth
Lacrosse Invitational, draws 110 teams from throughout the Southeast. "Last year we used this tournament to spread
the PCA message," Hyman said. "Each coach received PCA buttons and a PCA
letter. Due to the PCA concepts, registration for this year's tournament was
full in a couple hours, and we have 45 teams on the wait list."
Also new this spring at RYLA: the Face-Off program, co-ed
games for 4-to-6-year-olds, whose coaches begin instilling PCA principles such
as Honoring the Game. "This helps us get players and parents into PCA at an
earlier age, so they're that much more bought into the concepts as they develop
competitively," Hyman said.
Other elements of RYLA's program that contributed to its
winning the Honoring the Game Award: an effort to spread PCA to other Roswell
youth sports organization and an outstanding treatment of PCA on the RYLA
website's homepage and dedicated PCA web page.
Our series profiling Honoring the Game Award winners will continue in future issues of PCA Connector.
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Paul Peterson: Profile of a Double-Goal Coach
Mark Walters (left) of the Mandarin (Jacksonville) Liberty Mutual office gives Paul Peterson his Double-Goal Coach Award Presented by Liberty Mutual Insurance | In celebration of the 2010
winners of PCA's Double-Goal Coach� Award Presented by Liberty
Mutual Insurance, PCA Connector occasionally profiles these coaches. Our
featured coach this week is Paul Peterson of Providence School, Jacksonville, Fla. A three-time state champion as an
assistant coach at Bolles High School, Peterson has turned around Providence's
program, earning honors as the Jacksonville Quarterback Club High School Coach
of the Week in September, 2009. Still, he understands the larger game he and
his team are playing. "There are so many things you can do
with football as your platform that go beyond blocking and tackling," Peterson
said. "What takes it beyond is stretching the youngsters and teaching them how
to work without an excuse, because in the real world, nobody cares about their
excuse. I get to influence and attempt to alter players' thinking and action in
a positive way, using football to push beyond comfort levels so that they can
learn how to handle other adversity they may face in life." Paul Peterson's success on the field and commitment to character development in
youth through sport makes PCA and Liberty Mutual proud to honor him as a
Double-Goal Coach Award winner for 2010. For more on the PCA/Liberty Mutual
partnership, including access to videos, tips, guides for parents and coaches,
and the chance to win a $2,500 grant for your school or youth sports
organization by May 31st, visit the Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports Program powered by Positive Coaching Alliance. |
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Coaching Tip: How to Coach Honoring the Game
As anyone who has
attended a PCA workshop knows, one of our three major principles is Honoring
the Game. Part of what makes Honoring the Game work as an advanced form of
sportsmanship is that it is more than a general admonition to "be a good
sport." Rather it specifically prescribes respect for ROOTS: Rules,
Opponents, Officials, Teammates and Self. The mnemonic device -- ROOTS -- makes it
easier for coaches, spectators and players to remember to show that
respect. Here is a sample script coaches can adapt for their particular needs, depending on sport and
age group, to introduce Honoring the Game to their players. But what should coaches do when
their players lapse? For an answer click on
the video screen below to watch PCA Trainer Bav
Thakrar with his youth soccer players as featured in the Liberty Mutual Responsible
Sports Program powered by Positive Coaching Alliance. |
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Ask PCA: Encouraging "Selfishness"
Thanks for your responses to last week's "Ask PCA" question about videotaping opponents. We saw a sharp divide between those who embraced the practice as a learning opportunity for coaches and athletes and those who found such scouting at the middle-school level symptomatic of a win-at-all-cost mentality.
As always, the discourse was civil and well-reasoned, contributing to the continued success of this community! You can scroll down to read PCA's response, but, for now, consider this week's question:
Encouraging "Selfishness"
"On my high school soccer team, my best midfielder routinely passes up shot opportunities. She is extremely talented, and from conversations with her, I know she is concerned that if she shoots too much, teammates will consider her 'selfish.' How can I persuade her to shoot more, which would be to our team's benefit, without creating a divide between her and her teammates?"
-- Prefer to Remain Anonymous
Click here to comment on this topic on the "Ask PCA" blog.
Following is the previous "Ask PCA" question and PCA's response:
"At my son's middle-school lacrosse
game a couple of weeks ago, I noticed the coach of a team we are
scheduled to play later in the season videotaping my son's team and
making notes about the players who scored. When I asked the coach what
he was doing he just walked away, looking
embarrassed that someone would call him on this. What do you think of
videotaping and scouting at this age level?"
PCA Response by Eric Eisendrath, Lead Trainer-New York
Scouting, and especially videotaping, at the middle-school level intuitively seems over the top, and "results" driven. It is too bad the coach walked away when you asked
him what he was doing. It would have been interesting to hear his explanation.
Assuming compliance with standards relating to privacy and league rules, what concerns me is the underlying drive and philosophy of the coach doing the videotaping. I will grant there are arguments to be made for the instructional value of videotape in the hands of a great coach. And I do believe that just as coaches demand extraordinary effort from players, it is reasonable for players to expect the same from their coaches.
This answer to this question may boil down to community standards and the quality of the coach. If the well-considered culture of the league encourages pursuit of a competitive edge through scouting and taping and if the coach uses the tape instructionally (not to deride the opponent) in a way that educates players, then I might overcome my intuitive misgivings.
Read all the Ask PCA blog comments on this question.
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Support PCA
PCA is a non-profit committed to transforming youth sports so that all athletes through high school age can benefit from the life lessons that are uniquely available through sports.
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