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PCA Connector
 
May 18, 2011
 
David Jacobson, Editor

In This Issue:
PCA-Boston Launches!
May 31 Application Deadline for Triple-Impact Competitor® Scholarships
Responsible Coaching Tip: Coaching for Mastery
Ask PCA: Jealous Teammates

PCA-Boston Launches!

 

Positive Coaching Alliance continues its sweep across the U.S. with the launch of PCA-Boston, which will soon open its office within the Harvard University Athletics Department.

Boston Board
At the inaugural PCA-Boston Board of Directors meeting at the Boston Celtics' office on May 12, 2011 (L. to R.): Julie Brassard (representing Greg Gordon for Liberty Mutual Insurance); Directors Lee Popper, Jeff Tocci, Tom Grilk, Louise Packard, and Mark Lev; PCA's Jim Thompson; Directors Bob Sweeney, Shawn Sullivan, Julie Kahn, Jeremy Styles, and Chris Kiritsy; and PCA's David Shapiro. Not pictured: Jon Biotti and Bob Scalise.

"We are thrilled to spread the PCA movement to Boston and New England," said PCA Director of Business Development David Shapiro. "We are very excited by the tremendous energy of our board members, and we are grateful to the Celtics' co-owner Steve Pagliuca, the whole Celtics organization and the Shamrock Foundation -- as well as David Weekley, The Morgan Family Foundation, and Kevin Callaghan -- for the financial support necessary to launch PCA-Boston."

 

PCA's pre-launch history in Boston is marked by:

  • Celtics Coach Doc Rivers' membership on PCA's National Advisory Board and strong support for PCA's national partnership with AAU
     
  • PCA's partnership with Boston-based Liberty Mutual Insurance in the Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports Program Powered by Positive Coaching Alliance
     
  • Groundbreaking work with The Boston Foundation to train youth sports coaches for its CHAMPS Boston program in underserved communities
     
  • A new partnership with Massachusetts Bay Youth Lacrosse League that will train roughly 1,200 coaches serving nearly 17,000 youth athletes.

For a highlight from the PCA-Boston launch, click the video screen below to hear from PCA-Boston Board Member Tom Grilk, CEO of the Boston Athletic Association and Boston Marathon, on his sons' experiences with two former Boston Bruins as their youth hockey coaches.

 

Tom Grilk Screen

 

    


May 31 Application Deadline for Triple-Impact CompetitorScholarships
  

TIC_logoThe deadline is fast approaching for high school juniors (class of 2012) to apply for PCA's Triple-Impact Competitor Scholarship Program Sponsored by Deloitte and Thrive Foundation for Youth 

 

If you know such athletes who embody the Triple-Impact Competitor model of improving themselves, teammates and the game as a whole, please encourage them to apply for a scholarship.

 

The program covers the metro areas of Chicago, Houston, New York City, Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, DC.

 

Depending on location, scholarships are for $1,000 or $2,000. Northern California finalists also are eligible for mentorship by a Deloitte employee. All finalists will receive a copy of PCA Founder Jim Thompson's book for student-athletes, Elevating Your Game.

 

Deloitte_Blue_200pxThrive

 

 


Responsible Coaching Tip: Coaching for Mastery

Candrea_Screen 

 

As University of Arizona Softball Coach Mike Candrea leads his team into the NCAA Division I softball tournament starting today, what better time to share one of his Responsible Coaching tips? Click the video screen for his advice on coaching players for mastery, part of the Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports Program Powered by Positive Coaching Alliance.

 

Ask PCA: Jealous Teammates

Thanks for your answers to last week's "Ask PCA" question about the possibility of replaying a game due to a mistaken ruling. To review that question and PCA's answer, you can continue scrolling through this item, but for now, consider this week's question:
 
How Can I Keep Jealousy from Splitting My Team? 
"I coach a U-13 boys lacrosse team, but this question could apply to any team sport. We have two natural goal scorers, who also distribute the ball to teammates when they're open, often assisting on goals. Yet some players call these leading scorers 'ball hog' or 'selfish'. I emphasize ball movement, assists and winning ground balls. What else can I can do to keep resentment from the 'non-scorers' from fracturing our team?"
-- Name Withheld

 
Following is the previous "Ask PCA" question and PCA response:

 

Replay a Game Due to a Mistaken Ruling?

"In a baseball game for 12-year-olds with teen umpires, a runner slides headfirst into home and is called safe. The opposing coach argues the league has a 'no headfirst slide policy' but cannot produce a copy of the rule. The umpires change their call to 'out.' Later, the same player slides headfirst into home again, and the umps automatically call him out for a headfirst slide. That runner's team loses by one run. That night, the coaches learn there is no rule against headfirst slides. The coach who erroneously challenged the umps admits his mistake and says the opponent should get the win. What is your take -- the game stands, change the winner, or replay the game?"

 

PCA Response by Joe Scally, PCA Trainer, Chicago

    

Joe ScallyIn 1990 game officials mistakenly gave the University of Colorado football team an extra down, allowing Colorado to score a touchdown on the extra play to defeat the University of Missouri. Even though replay revealed the mistake, the result stood and Colorado eventually won a share of the National Championship. In a lesser known Fifth-Down Game in 1940, Cornell was given an extra down, defeated Dartmouth, then offered to forfeit the game, which Dartmouth accepted, ending Cornell's 18-game winning streak.

 

 

There may be no "right" answer as to the best solution, as we examine issues of fairness, finality of decisions, acceptance of results, and who gets to decide the outcome. These are life-lesson types of issues youth will later face in law, politics, business, education and many other facets of our society.

 

What is most important is not which team gets the official W, but which life lessons are learned by the players, coaches and umpires. The coaches should consider what they could have done differently, and they are responsible for making sure that these lessons (among others) are thoroughly explored with the players and youth umpires: the importance of knowing, understanding and following the rules; that officials of all ages and experience levels make mistakes; that sometimes those mistakes are in your favor and sometimes they are not;  that we must continue to play our best, regardless; that any questioning of calls must be done respectfully, following proper procedure; that results on the scoreboard are not always "fair"; and that no matter what the scoreboard says, those who have given their best are winners.

 

Regarding how to handle the actual result, the first step is to follow league rules relating to protesting an umpire's decision.  If there are no rules, then the decision becomes arbitrary (and it would be a good time to put some rules in place). In the absence of clear rule, the possible arguments are: 

  • The outcome on the field, mistakes and all, should stand, as mistakes are made in every game, and we can't and shouldn't review all of them;
     
  • The losing team clearly would have won except for the umpires' mistake, so changing the result is the only fair outcome;
     
  • Since we can't be certain how the incorrect ruling affected the game, it should be replayed from the point of the disputed call.  

Other factors to consider are how letting coaches influence this game's outcome will affect the future authority of umpires, and how a change in the results will affect other teams in the league.

 

Whatever the league decides, it is critical to emphasize to players and parents that the decision is important not because of who officially "wins" but because the decision indicates the principles of good sportsmanship and other values that the league hopes to impart.

 

(Joe Scally is a PCA Trainer and longtime soccer coach based in the Chicago area. Joe spent several years as PCA's national director of training.)

 

 

Ask PCA your youth sports coaching and sports parenting questions, at [email protected] 

 

 

 


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