Baseball Begins!

Today marked the true beginning of a new era for my favorite baseball team, the Minnesota Twins, with the official opening of their new outdoor stadium, Target Field. This will be the first season since 1981 that the team will play its home games outdoors, since their home has been the Metrodome for the past 28 years. Gone are the cramped locker rooms, no longer do the players and fans have to share an arena with the local NFL football team – this is a place they can truly call home, with all the modern amenities of any state-of-the-art ballpark.

I have been waiting for this my entire life. The Twins won two World Series’ in my first four years of existence, and have been relatively miserable until very recently. But I believe that they run their organization the right way, and like no other team in the big leagues. They preach fundamentally sound defense and value “small ball.” They relentlessly scout and home-grow their talented players within their own farm system, making shrewd trades and draft picks in order to survive in a league that mostly values money and the long ball. No team has done more with less over the past decade, and now they are finally reaping the fruits of their labors.

There definitely has not been a more exciting time for Twins fans – the team could not look much better on paper, and they have won 5 of their first 7 games on the road against the formidable Los Angeles Angels and their division archrival, the Chicago White Sox. The recent blockbuster deal for hometown hero Joe Mauer could not have come at a better time. The organization clearly realizes that they play a special brand of baseball and have some of the most devoted fans in the Majors, and they have responded in kind by locking up some of the fan favorites like Mauer and power-hitting first baseman Justin Morneau for long-term contracts.

They have the talent, they’ve begun paying their players the big bucks, they now have a place to truly call their own – all my beloved Minnesota Twins need now is a World Series victory. They definitely took the first step this afternoon – they won the first game in their new home – a 5-3 thriller against the Boston Red Sox – and moved into sole possession of first place in the American League Central Division. Only 154 games to go…GO TWINS!!

- Michael Flattery, ND 2010
Social Foundations of Coaching

Is LeBron’s Free Agency Hoopla Bad for the NBA?

LeBron James will be facing his first free agency opportunity this upcoming offseason, as I’m sure you have heard at least once by now, if not for the 792803024 time. Mr. James has embraced the opportunity by making a circus-like atmosphere around each game, media appearance, even celebrity parties with guests the likes of Drake, Beyonce, and none other than Shawn Carter, aka Jay-Z. This season, more than others, LeBron seems as focused on winning an NBA championship with his current team, the Cleveland Cavaliers in case you’ve forgotten, as would a blue-collar worker who was a few months away from signing the most financially lucrative contract of his life. The problem is that LeBron is acting like he has never been able to drop millions on whatever he fancies. Let us not forget the $100 million contract he has with Nike, and the $83 million contract he is currently still under. While he has never before been a free agent, he certainly is behaving like he has never been there before. Instead of averaging the triple-double he is well capable of, it seems as though he is toying with the opposition on the court, and enjoys preoccupations such as dancing on the sidelines, changing jersey numbers, paying homage to Michael Jordan, eating fans’ popcorn in-game, entertaining with rap stars, and most of all, cultivating the fan-fair surrounding his impending free agency.
Although each of these non-basketball related issues affects only LeBron and his teammates, the structure of the NBA may be taking a hit due to LeBron’s eagerness to indulge in the rumors that he is bound for New York. Let’s make a few things clear; LeBron is just as entitled to his free agency as any other player, he is entitled to earn as much as the market will pay for him, and he is entitled to play where he chooses if they will have him. However, there is something wrong when he seems to be hinting at a future in the Big Apple while he is still in the championship-chase with Cleveland. It is one thing to be BFFs with Jay-Z, self-proclaimed king of New York and part-owner of the New Jersey Nets soon to be relocated to Brooklyn, but it is another when you spend your free time at shows and parties in New York sporting Yankee ball-caps, and even taking it as far as wearing custom-made signature shoes with NY etched on the base of the shoes while playing for the Cavs! Just because the Cavs new retro uniforms happen to share the same colorway as the Knicks jerseys does not give one right to put an opposing city’s name on your shoe. Now keep in mind, LeBron is not from New York, he has never even lived there; rather he is playing for his hometown team; he is Cleveland born-and-raised.
Not only are these actions a slap in the face of his current teammates and fans, but teams’ reactions to LeBron’s hints that he wants the bright lights of Broadway have been nothing short of sabotage. Fans in New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles (Clippers), and Chicago are all waiting on pins and needles to see if the King James will grace their throne; however they may all be disappointed for more than just one reason. If LeBron fails to join any of the aforementioned squads, they will have failed at the two, even three-year plans that they have been attempting to execute. Dumping salary, not signing players who could improve their teams immediately, and darn near losing games on purpose to secure better draft picks have been employed by each of these teams just to have a shot a LBJ, but what cost does this have on the league? At the current moment all of these teams are outside the playoffs looking in, with only Chicago having a remote chance to break in as the eighth seed in the eastern conference. These cities’ fans have reason to be upset if they don’t land LeBron because of the years of suffering would be all for naught. Lets face it, Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh aren’t consolations to sneeze at, but they would definitely not be reason enough to lose for a few years just to have a shot at. Any time one player needs to be praised in a bigger city with brighter lights, more storied arenas, more famous crowds, all with no promise of a better team, fans should take a step back and contemplate what is really happening. The competition in the NBA, especially the eastern conference, is at an all time low, and the magnetism of one player is polarizing the field even more. If LeBron and the others coveted in the summer end up remaining with their respective teams, this theory will become clearer, especially when teams question their future and have to answer to 20,000 livid fans every night while LeBron continues to put on a show in Cleveland.
Ryan Woods
Social Foundations of Coaching

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Last week, the Minnesota Twins took the field for the first time at Target Field, a $425 million brand new outdoor baseball park in Minneapolis. Despite an afternoon of rain, thousands of fans flocked to the new park in the evening to watch their beloved Twins take on the Cardinals. Naturally, the event was a major feature on every form of media in the state, and news stories debating the pros and cons of the new facility have been running since the plan for the project was announced years ago. Although there have been countless arguments made and statistics gathered about the value of the ballpark, what impressed me most about the inaugural day at Target Field was the photo on the front page of the Saint Paul newspaper the day after the event. This photo featured Anneka, a 3-year-old girl, giggling in pure delight as her father holds her high in the air between innings at the game.
To me, these are the standards by which the success of Target Field should be measured. Especially for young children, attending sporting events should be fun, playful, exciting and memorable times. By cheering with other fans, watching the players in action, spending quality time with family and friends, and learning the workings of the game, children learn a love of sports by watching. These are the same children who grow into future athletes, or at the very least, lifelong fans. If Target Field, or any athletic venue, can bring families together, give children lasting memories, and provide a great experience for all attendees, it is a successful facility.

Emily Stewart
Social Foundations of Coaching
University of Notre Dame 2010

The NBA season

http://technorati.com/sports/article/are-the-denver-nuggets-championship-contenders/

In listening to basketball gossip surrounding this year's NBA season it appears as though the season was decided and done with before it even began. From the get go all that has been discussed and covered by the media is how great this year's finals will be between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now it is a well known fact that both of these teams are very good, and each have their own respective super star, but why is every other team in the league already being ruled out as a contender? With such emphasis being put on these two teams as the sole contenders, is league management trying to micro manage how the season plays out, to ensure that what fans "want to see" is delivered? The article above briefly discusses the Denver Nuggets as being contenders for this years title, but due to their rough edged personality, they have in a sense been given the back seat by the media. Can it then be said that the league is trying to promote what is sees as best for its image, or will what happens the court be the only contributor to who is really the best team?
Andrew Scheid
Social Foundations of Coaching
ND 2010

NCAA Tournament- too much?

There is talk of the field of 64 (now 65 officially) expanding to 128 teams for the Men’s NCAA Basketball tournament. There is also something along the lines of 90 hours straight of Bracketology and analysis and the like leading up to the first game of the Men’s Tournament. At what point does this become too much? How many games or replays or plays or analysis or predictions do we need to go through until we have reached a breaking point? I think that point is just about here and is dangerously close to turning some fans away.

A 96- or 128-team bracket is too much for “The Dance”. March Madness is crazy enough to begin with. We do not need to add to the insane happenings that go on throughout the month. Now, many of the teams who make it to their conference finals would have a shot at making the tournament because of the expanded field. This takes away from the excitement of the conference finals and puts the focus on the semifinals. There also becomes a great deal of uncertainty and debate over who should get those newly-added bids. The current format works- it fits easily into a 3 week tournament with plenty of excitement to go around. There are the shots that sends teams into the championship game with a shot at making the dance, and then that back-and-forth finals game that comes down to free throws to determine who gets the automatic bid. As a sports fan, there are few, if any, more thrilling times during the year. I think an expansion of the field would take a little bit away from this. Leave the field at 65 teams.

Led by sports giant ESPN, there is now more analysis of the games and teams and scenarios than you ever hope to keep track of. ESPN is touting its marathon of NCAA basketball coverage leading up to the first round games. It has nearly 90 straight hours planned of continuous college basketball games, information, and analysis. I am sure that the national champion and Final Four teams will be predicted a few dozen times. There will be talk of who just missed the tournament, which region has a favorable draw for the top seeds, who needs to watch out for first-round upsets, who could be a dark horse and make a run, and many more topics. I enjoy watching general highlights of that and seeing a few predictions, but this had gotten out of hand. Digger Phelps will exhaust the small numbers he pulled away from team stats and will be using as an indicator or how a particular team will do. Again, this is interesting to watch in limited exposure. However, this had gone too far. Give us quality, not quantity. I want to see a few good things to look for or potential dangers teams could face, not a laundry list. Keep the excitement level high with and do not ruin it with all of these expert opinions- too much of any thing can be bad, and we are reaching that level now with the coverage and analysis.

March Madness. This is the most exciting time of the year. There is constant jubilation and triumph juxtaposed to heartbreak. The thrill of watching kids who love to play the game makes for a very distracting 3 weeks, a distraction I am more than happy to have. Do not ruin it with expansion or over-analysis. Let the kids do all the talking on the court; they have been doing a pretty good so far.

Sean Stefancin ND ‘12
Social Foundations of Coaching Course
University of Notre Dame

Olympic Mania

Watching the Olympics can be an eye-opening experience for the viewer; everything from the opening ceremonies (I hope everyone caught the simulation of whales swimming in the floor), to watching the bobsleds speed down the course in excess of 90 mph, to watching the figure skaters spin in circles so quickly that their faces become mere blurs (without the end result being them skating off like a contestant in a bat spin race). We are introduced to the best athletes in the world and get to see them perform at levels that quite frankly I will never be able to achieve in anything.
Not only do we get to see the incredible results of their dedication to their sports, but often times NBC provides us with segments that allow us a glimpse at what their training regiment is like, and interestingly for me, how they interact with their coaches, both in training and during the competition.
Given my love of snowboarding, it is no surprise that I was thrilled at the amount of coverage given to the U.S. snowboarding team, especially my personal favorite Shaun White. In fact, the coverage was so extensive that NBC was intent on catching his every move during the final event, leading to the now infamous exchange between Shaun White and his coach right before his final halfpipe run.
White had already clinched the gold medal with his first run, however he wanted to soak up the experience by using his second run to perform for the crowd. NBC captured White and his coach deciding what tricks he should perform, however instead of telling him what to do, his coach asked him instead “What do you want to do?” (to which White jokingly replied he wanted to ride down the middle). This simple question has the potential to be overlooked because of the coach’s use of a few swear words in the surrounding conversation, however I think it is important to remember because of what it implies about the relationship with White and his coach, as well as the coach’s coaching technique.
The coach allowed White complete ownership over his routine in the most important competition of his life. This shows that even in the highest level of competition that a person could ever be in, allowing the player Ownership is still essential. It seemed to be very much a relationship of equals at least, and at best (and probably more likely) a relationship of friends. I think this is important to see that even Olympians need the kind of coach that will work with them, as a team, and allow them to set their own goals.
If it’s any indicator of what giving an athlete a share in Ownership can do, White proceeded to land a trick never before attempted in Olympic competition, the infamous Double McTwist. Oh yeah, and he scored a 48.4 out of 50, too.
Allie Castro, ND 2010
Social Foundations of Coaching

Is humility a virtue in athletics?

The Winter Olympics in Vancouver have brought us many thrilling events, but none more exciting than the accomplishments of Apolo Anton Ohno. Ohno has become the most decorated US Winter Olympian in history. In order to win the bronze medal Saturday night in the short track 1,000-meter final, Ohno had to come from last place on the final lap of the race. He knew the gold and silver were out of the question based on his positioning. Ohno said, “I really had to fight. I can’t wait to watch the tape and see how I came back from last place to win bronze.”

However successful Ohno may be he wasn’t quick to brand himself as the most decorated American in Winter Games history. “In my mind, that’s a hard question. How do you answer that? I don’t put labels on myself,” he said. “I consider myself an athlete on my third Olympic Games, working my heart out. My goal was to come out and put my heart and soul into the Olympic Games and I’ve done that.” More impressive than the accomplishments of the athlete is his modesty towards those accomplishments. Many athletes train in order to win the gold, but Ohno races for the love of the sport and because of that love he has been able to become the most decorated US Winter Olympian in history.

Phillip Tuttle
Social Foundations of Coaching
ND 2010

Olympic Hockey: A Dangerous Diversion?

Now, I do not claim to be anyone remotely resembling an expert in the field of hockey, the NHL, or the Olympics, but I really wanted to bring something up for discussion. Perhaps, it may be that I am biased towards my team (the Chicago Blackhawks) because they are leading their division, are second in their conference, and are third in the league (and I hope that I do not jinx them for bragging like this); and that I miss watching Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews play side-by-side instead of head-to-head, but I believe that having Men’s Hockey as an Olympic event is unhealthy for team dynamics in the NHL.
Many players jump at the chance to play in the Olympics to honor their country and at the chance to play with enemies and against teammates. Yes, the Olympics are fun and exciting to watch. They certainly give people like me the chance to shamelessly cheer for players that I despise (but respect) during the regular NHL season, like Joe Pavelski of the San Jose Sharks, because they are now playing for a team that I can get behind, Team USA. At the same time, however, there are players from my Blackhawks that are not playing for USA. How can I cheer for Jonathan Toews, who is by far my favorite Hawk and a member of Team Canada, during the USA-Canada game? It is really not as difficult as I may make it seem. I am cheering for Team USA regardless, but feel like I am being disloyal to the other Hawks players who are a part of other countries’ Olympic teams. As a fan, the Olympics are nothing short of frustrating.
All self-pity and tangents aside, I disapprove of Olympic Men’s Hockey mainly because of its timing. At this time of year, NHL teams have more or less played in over three-quarters of their regular season games, having had 4.5 months to create a solid team. With a month and a half left in the regular season after the Olympics are over, will this two week vacation have an effect on team unity? Certainly each NHL team has its own dynamic and unique relationships between players and coaches, as does each Olympic team. In order for a team to do well in the Olympics, players have to adapt and to basically let go of any quirk or loyalty that was present within their NHL team. What worries me, and many other critics of having Men’s Hockey as an Olympic sport, is the amount of time that it will take for NHL teams to return to normal and to restore the relationships and habits that had made their team strong before. Will teams that were “hot” going into the Olympic break still have that fire come March when the NHL season starts up again? Though problems may only be temporary and a team might be able to bounce back within a week or so, having the Olympics so late in the season makes the pressure to return to normalcy that much greater. Slip-ups near the end of the season can have huge implications in regards to play-off bids and final standings, so why place oneself and ones team in such a situation by competing in the Olympics?
Besides having a potential to harm team dynamics, the fact that international hockey and NHL rules are different can have impacts on players’ styles and performance during the shifts. Probably having the most risk is the difference between what is being called for obstruction in NHL and international games. International games have been more lenient regarding what is being called for penalties than NHL games, especially since the NHL cracked down on the rules after its one year hiatus a couple years back. After two weeks of being able to play harder, and maybe more recklessly, considering retaliation is more difficult since a fight in an international game will get a player kicked out, I can imagine that it may be difficult to get back into the swing of things upon return to the NHL. Perhaps, I am being a bit melodramatic on this point, but it is really hard for me to discount the power that one game can have on a player and even on a team. Stupid penalties can make or break a game and a single game can be all that it takes to keep a team from advancing.
So although I will support Team USA in the Olympics and did cheer for them during their 5-3 victory Sunday over Canada, I truly hope that there will be no Team USA, or Canada, or Slovakia taking the ice in Sochi in 2014, for my sanity, as well as for the well-being and cohesiveness of all NHL teams, so that they may have their best shot at the Cup.
Kelly Marszalek
ND 2010
Social Foundations of Coaching

The Olympics: The Most Wonderful Time - Every Couple of Years

Da! Da! Da-dum-dum-dum-dum, da da da da da da da da dum dum da da dum!
For those who want the better version of one of the greatest songs in the world, you can follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diXUz0DrGG0

The best sports event in the world is upon us. Anyone that knows me or is simply around me every two years knows that there are few things in life I love more than the Olympics. Some have heard the phrase, "God, Family, Notre Dame." My life has tended to hold to "God, Family, Olympics." I honestly don't have any true connection to the Olympics besides simply the love of the event and the games. Although some would disagree for some outlandish reason such as revenue, the Olympic games are the greatest of all sporting events. Period. And if there is anyone who doesn't agree with me, I will argue with them until they do. Believe me, it's happened. In what other sport are you able to bring together thousands of athletes from around the entire globe to compete not only for circular pieces of metal but more importantly self and national pride and the feeling of truly being one of the best at your sport IN THE WORLD.

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics are upon us. My remote is primed and ready to flip between every channel owned by NBC at all hours of the day, and my laptop is ready to be logged on to various websites constantly, just trying to catch a glimpse of these athletes performing feats I can only imagine. Friday night, we will watch the opening ceremonies, and from that moment onward for the next 2 and a half weeks, televisions will be on at all hours of the day, people will rediscover their love of curling and men's eyes will be glued to hockey while the women find themselves unable to tear themselves away from figure skating.

It isn't the medals and the competition that has me coming back every couple years though. It isn't the wild hope that the US Hockey team will have another "miracle" and win. It is the stories that bring us all back each and every two years for the winter or summer Olympics. Everyone knows the story of the "Miracle on Ice." It even got a movie. In the midst of a time full of uncertainty and turmoil, a little bit of hope was shown for America when the USA hockey team came back from a 3-2 deficit to upset Russia in the 1980 Olympics. The story that still defines the Olympics, particularly the Winter Games in my eyes, however, is the story of Dan Jansen. It is a story that never fails to bring tears to my eyes and truly exemplifies not only the American and Olympic spirit but also the human spirit in a way few other stories do. VISA recently used it in an advertisement, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWYRH5jnQBo To be honest, I could write an entire second article just on Dan's story, but in the interest of brevity, I will simply include a link to a great article written on it by Mike Morrison: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/winter-olympics-jansen.html

In the world we live in today, it's great to see even just a small ray of hope that maybe, just maybe everyone can come together in peace. That is what's great about the Olympics. Even if it is for only a small amount of time, we all see that at least for two and a half weeks, we can all really live in harmony and join together not as hundreds of separate countries all with their own plans, but as hundreds of separate countries coming together to show the human form in its ultimate perfection. It isn't about one country, it's about the world. As Morgan Freeman so wonderfully says in the VISA commercials, "Go World." Let the games begin!

Sean McCullough
Social Foundations of Coaching
ND 2011

Reactions To Bad Calls

Let’s face it, bad calls happen. It is simply a part of the game. More often than not, when a bad call is made, arguing does not help the cause. Even with the implementation of instant replay reviews, judgmental calls cannot be reviewed and overturned. However, there are different ways one can react to bad calls and recent examples help illustrate different approaches.
Consider the NBA game January 11th involving the Boston Celtics and the Atlanta Hawks. Midway through the 3rd quarter, the Boston Celtics led the Atlanta Hawks by 10 points when Celtics’ forward Glenn “Big Baby” Davis was given a flagrant foul for his hard takedown of Hawks player Marvin Williams. Celtics coach Doc Rivers immediately lost his cool and began arguing with the referees. He was given two technical fouls and an automatic ejection. Quite the reaction from the coach who has been preaching to his team, “He who angers you, owns you.” The Hawks hit four of the five free throws and cut the lead to six. The Celtics were left to finish the game without their head coach, and ended up losing 102-96. In hindsight, that was not exactly the best reaction. I’m sure Coach Rivers wishes he could take that one back and follow his own advice.
Another recent bad no-call illustrates a different response. At the end of the Seton Hall v. Louisville men’s basketball game, a Seton Hall player attempted to in-bound the ball after a made basket. However in doing so, he crossed the baseline. Typically, this would be called a violation and the ball would turn over to the other team. This would have been greatly beneficial to the Louisville team, as they were only down 2 points with 0.7 seconds left. However, the referee blew his whistle, asked for the ball, directed the player back behind the line, and allowed him to in-bound it again. As expected, Louisville coach Rick Pitino was furious. He argued his case, but with no avail. At that point he dropped the case, and ater the game, Coach Pitino shook hands with the Seton Hall coach and walked to the locker room. No major scene. Coach Pitino stuck up for his team, but was not irresponsible or act out of line.
As a coach, when dealing with a bad call, or even a bad referee, remember who is watching you and who needs you. As in the case with Doc Rivers, his ejection led to the collapse of his team and cost them the game. Although the ejection may not be the sole reason, it definitely does not help the team’s cause. Some may argue there are times when a coach needs to be ejected in order to spark his team – think Coach Dale in the classic movie “Hoosiers.” His ejection at a critical point in the game was done on purpose in order to display his trust in his assistant coach and to motivate his players. But more often than not, coaches should defend their players, without compromising their role in leading the team. A prime example is Coach Yoast in “Remember the Titans.” When referees are cheating the Titans, Yoast does not make a scene and overact. He simply speaks to the referee and informs him that he better call a fair game or he will report the referees’ intentions to the press. When dealing with bad calls, let’s hope coaches act like the role models they are, resembling Coach Pitino and Coach Yoast, or even Coach Dale – but only when necessary.

Ben Frost
Notre Dame ‘10
Social Foundations of Coaching Course

Growing up with Mark McGwire

Somehow it doesn’t bother me that McGwire took steroids.

So what if he took performance enhancing drugs? I was in the stadium the night he hit his 61st. It was magical. At the height of McGwire’s homerun prowess, I was a naive elementary school student living in the suburbs of St. Louis. McGwire bobble heads, pencils, shirts, and PEZ dispensers - my friends and I had it all. Oh believe me, I didn’t like baseball. I still don’t. But for some reason, during the fall of 1998, I could imagine myself growing up to be a baseball player, just like McGwire.

Parents today often talk about how celebrities can no longer be good role models for their children. Drugs, alcohol, sexual affairs, and scandal after scandal appear in the news daily. Where are the great athletes that children everywhere can aspire to be? Nonexistent. Realistically? Every great athlete. Honestly, children only understand what happens on the field and who wins the game. Saying that he or she cheated by taking enhancers and drugs; none of that would have made sense in my 3rd grade head. Drugs..is that like the Tylenol I take when I’m sick? Enhancers.. my gummy bear vitamins? Especially in sports, none of this brouhaha matters to children. What they see at a game is life changing. Nothing will take away my feelings when I saw McGwire hit that homer, just like I will always remember watching in awe Marion Jones win 3 golds in Sydney. Those performances are inspiring. A child needs to see those kind of performances, drug enhanced or not.

I doubt anyone is surprised that McGwire actually took steroids. It’s like a fairy tale. It’s almost supposed to happen. Great athlete achieves despite the odds, and then spirals into oblivion. Come on, look at Tiger Woods. As long as the black hole opens after a child sees an amazing performance by the athlete, nothing else matters.

All in all, I’m glad McGwire took steroids. Otherwise, I probably would not have seen that homer, or felt the amazing power of 45,000 fans all cheering for the same person. Knowing he may have took steroids during that game does not in any way change my experience.

After all, in my mind, he’s still the Mark McGwire I grew up with.
Ching-Ting Hwang
ND '12

Connecting Spirituality within Sport: The PLC High School Athlete Retreat

Notre Dame High School in St. Louis, MO in partnership with Play Like A Champion Today(TM)is conducting retreats for their student athletes. Athletic Director, Ed Behr, and Campus Minister, Liz Miller, have united to conduct retreats at the beginning of each athletic season: fall, winter and spring. I had the pleasure to be a part of their winter retreat. Athletes took a break from studying for finals and came together to pray, to reflect upon who they are as people and as teammates and to set goals on who they want to become throughout the sport season. The athletes also heard testimony from a former collegiate soccer player on how he became more fully Christian through his sport experience, despite ever present pressures.

"Thus, I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing." 1 Cor. 9:26). The retreat served as a break from the business of a high school athlete's life filled with school work, exams, practice, games and other commitments. It offered a time and a space to reflect upon God's role in sport and how God is forming these young athletes to become disciples not only on their team, but in the world.

Tim Donaghy: Rogue NBA Referee? 60 Minutes Interview Tells the Tale

PLC is developing an Officials Workshop for our partners to use in the 2010-2011 school year that will be unveiled at the 2010 Sports Leadership Conference. This is why I found Tim Donaghy’s interview so interesting last night. If you missed the 60 Minutes interview with Tim Donaghy, then check it out at www.cbsnew.com or view below. Donaghy is the infamous NBA referee who bet on professional basketball games, many of which he was officiating. The story portrayed a remorseful man who suffered from a severe gambling addiction that eventually got him into trouble with the mob, put him in jail, and tore apart his family.

A central theme of the interview focused on the integrity of NBA referees and officials in general. Both the FBI and the NBA did not find that his bets influenced the way he called his games. On the other hand, Donaghy claimed that he was able to win 80% of his bets exactly because of the inside information he was given by his fellow officials. He claimed in the interview that he knew of personal likes and dislikes of each official that would ultimately influence the outcome of the game. In other words, he made fair calls while benefitting from the unfair calls of his fellow officials.

Are officials influenced by personal opinions of teams, players, and coaches?
Two primary goals of the official are to protect the integrity of the game and ensure the safety of the players. Favoring (or disfavoring) a team because of personal opinions insults the integrity of the game. Just as coaches and players complete for the love of the game, so should officials officiate for the love of the game. There is no place for officials to make calls based on their personal opinions of the players or team.

At the same time, officials are human. As a former official, I seldom had players or coaches that I disliked a lot. Sure there were many who disliked me and never showed any sense of courtesy, but all that comes with the job. I can, however, remember a number of times when I would officiate a game with friends or even fellow officials who were participants. Sometimes they became the biggest critics! Occasionally I would make a call (the right call), knowing well that people would be upset by it. I may have felt guilty afterwards, not because of the call but because of the repercussions. I cannot imagine making a call (or not making a call) to teach a player or a coach a lesson.

Is Donaghy a “rogue official” as the NBA claims?
I hope so. In the interview, Donaghy made a number of accusations against the NBA. I hope that money does not play into the NBA’s influence on officials. At the same time, there were a lot of game 7’s last year. I also hope that the games I watch on TV are fair. I have had my fair share of yelling at the refs through the television – I just hope that it is caused by human error or my own ignorance and not personal vendettas.

What are your thoughts? Do you think he was impartial when he officiated games on which he placed some money? Can any referee truly call a game without any influence by personal likes and dislikes of teams, players and coaches?



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Elizabeth Lambert’s Apology - Does Sport Reveal Character?

Elizabeth Lambert kicked, punched, and even pulled a BYU player to the ground by her poneytail. Cameras caught it all, and even though Lambert received only a yellow card, she was suspended for the game. Later the University of New Mexico suspended her indefinitely. Predictably Lambert apologized. She excused her bad behavior as due to the intensity of game: I let my emotions get the best of me in a heated situation. This is in no way indicative of my character or the soccer player I am." Really? Lambert’s comment appears to fly in the face of conventional wisdom embodied in Heywood Broun’s famous saying (often attributed to John Wooden), “Sports do not build character, they reveal it.” It is discouraging enough to concede that sports don’t build character, but are we also willing to accept Lambert’s denial that they don’t reveal it either?

Lambert didn’t just blow up once during the game, nor was there an indication that she was acting in retaliation. If the “heat” of a close game can excuse her whole pattern of behavior, then one wonders whether character has anything to do with sports. Perhaps athletes’ behavior is, as Lambert’s statement implies, situation specific. Once our emotional arousal gets too high, it is very difficult to maintain control. But isn’t character all about self-control? Even those with the strongest characters have lapses of self-control but these are generally momentary.

Lambert believes that she is a better person and a better soccer player than her actions revealed. Perhaps she simply had a tough game. Although it may be true that we are all better people than our actions at any one time may reveal, character has no meaning except in relationship to our behavior. What was objectionable about Lambert’s play was a whole pattern of bad actions throughout an entire game. Lambert’s play wasn’t simply “outside the lines” or “unsportsmanlike,” it was violent and could well have resulted in a serious injury.

We are left with a puzzle. If Lambert is right and her actions were not indicative of her character, then should we throw out the concept of character as meaningless? If Lambert is wrong and her actions reveal her character, should we blame her for being a bad person? Perhaps we can keep the concept of character without unduly condemning Lambert. It is easy to well up with righteousness indignation when others’ act in blatantly offensive ways. It is even easier to come down on others for failing to own up to their faults. It is far more difficult, however, to acknowledge that Lambert’s behavior and subsequent denial that it had anything to do with her character reflects something about a toxic sports culture of our own making. Does anyone believe that Lambert didn’t resorted to dirty play until the BYU game? How long has Lambert been pushing, punching, and pulling hair? When did it start and what did her coaches and teammates say and do when it started? How did Lambert rise to the level of a starting D-1 player without others along the way intervening? Isn’t it a bit hypocritical for the University of New Mexico to suspend Lambert indefinitely for playing the way she had been playing before the bad publicity came? Why not punish the coaches and other players?

Character development is a complicated process. It involves emotional control as well an understanding of the right way to behave and a commitment to behave that way. Most importantly character grows out of community. Who I am as an individual player depends very much upon who we are as a team. Until the sports community makes a commitment to creating a culture that takes character-building as seriously as it takes it winning, we should be the ones who are ashamed.

The Berenstain Bears “Play a Good Game”

A friend of the program recently gave us a book from the Berenstain Bears series called The Berenstain Bears Play a Good Game. The book tells the story of Brother and Sister Bear’s experience playing soccer against the “bullies of Bear County,” the Steamrollers. Papa Bear, who coaches his children’s team, reassures his players that “its not whether you win or lose that counts, but how you play the game!” The opposing coach, Two-Ton Grizzly, tells his team that “it isn’t how you play the game that counts, but whether you win or lose!”

The book covers almost all the issues in youth sports today:
· Overemphasis on winning (in the wrong way)
· The challenges of playing fair against a cheating team
· The challenges of parents coaching their children
· Rowdy parent and grandparents in the stands
· Bad calls by the referees (and angry coaches)
· Coaches yelling at coaches! Spectators yelling at spectators!

How did they resolve the conflicts? Who won the game? You’ll have to find out for yourself! It is a great little book for young kids ages 4-7. It even has discussion questions that you can talk about with your children and activities to get out and do!

Preventing Post-Summer Vacation Injuries

By Dr. John Stavrakos, PLC Consultant and Sports Medicine Specialist

As we enter another school year, thousands of young athletes from grade school to high school are preparing for fall sports by participating in preseason workouts, and family doctors nationwide are swamped with filling out preparticipation sports physicals. This is a fun and exciting time of year for parents, coaches and students alike – but also a high time of year for sports related injuries. In this article, I wanted to touch on a few issues that invariably come up when kids go from vacation time fun to early school year training schedules, and how to best evaluate and treat them.

1) Strains, sprains & aches: It’s a safe bet that all sports doctors are going to see young athletes marching into their offices within the first three weeks of preseason camps from one of these. Most muscle strains and joint aches are a result of a rapid increase in demands on the musculoskeletal system – going from summer fun of getting a tan and throwing a frisbee around to two-a-day strength, speed and conditioning drills is going to produce some aches – so some of these pains are unavoidable. Teaching kids to keep with a summer conditioning program will usually lessen these issues. In children undergoing a growth spurt, keep in mind that that bones are growing faster than muscles, and this can lead to relative muscle weakness and inflexibility, as well as pain from traction of the muscle tendons at their insertion points on the bone, called an apophysitis. The 15 year old female track runner who had no problems last fall, for example, who now (one year later and 3 inches taller) is complaining of a sharp or achy pain in her anterior hips when running, may be suffering from this. Year round muscle conditioning (keep in mind that most active playtime activities are great conditioning) and stretching in growing kids can help to diminish these problems; if you have any questions or concerns, be sure and ask your physician.

2) Heat and overexposure: not long ago, the dangers of hyperthermia, or overheating, made national headlines when a college football player at a Division I school passed away in training camp from this condition. In humid areas of the country, the risk of hyperthermia is even greater, as humid air lessens the body’s ability to dissipate heat from the skin. Always keep in mind that children have a decreased tolerance to excessive heat and a diminished ability to cool off when compared to adults. If an athlete shows signs of listlessness, walking with a staggered gait, not focusing or not speaking intelligently, get them into shade/cool area, lay them down and elevate their legs and seek medical attention. Advise your athletes to drink well before and after practice (drinking until you’re no longer thirsty is a good rule of thumb), and to cool down afterwards. Drinking excessive amounts of water when exercising can be dangerous as well, and can lead to dilutional hyponatremia, an electrolyte imbalance where the sodium level in the blood gets “watered down” from too much water intake, and can present with symptoms similar to dehydration and hyperthermia. Kids should avoid caffeine (which causes dehydration), and most especially energy drinks – these beverages (e.g. Monster, Amp, Spike Shooter, etc.) not only carry much more caffeine than a 12 oz can of Coca Cola (up to 11 – 12.5 times more!), but have other substances in them that act as stimulants, which your kids don’t need in 90 degree heat when they’re running a 5K, doing push-ups and crunches or doing tackling drills.

3) Stress Fractures: another potential problem of ramping up activity level beyond what the bones can handle. Stress fractures (also called insufficiency fractures) are micro fractures, or “cracks” in the architecture of bones that happen when the forces exceed the shock absorbing ability of the bone and surrounding tissues, and overcome the bone’s ability to heal. Stress fractures tend to occur most commonly in the shins (“shin splints” are an early stage stress fracture) and in the midfoot (just past the ankle), and are more common in girls than boys. Typically they present as a achy pain that occurs with impact activity at a bony weight bearing area (foot, shin, hip, etc.), that is worse with impact and gets better with rest, and may progress to hurting with every day activities such as walking. These are most common when young athletes go to ‘the next level’ – i.e. 8th grade to high school, high school to a competitive college program. They usually require an xray and possibly further imaging, such as a CT or MRI, if the clinical suspicion is high, because many stress fractures do not show up on plain xrays. If your young athlete has a pain that will not go away when doing their sport, even with rest, and especially if it is present even when not in sport, you should seek medical attention.

Sports are an important and enjoyable aspect of returning to school, but as with every activity, as responsible adults who love and care for the children we are responsible for, we need to be vigilant for conditions that can adversely affect them. May all your young athletes have a healthy, successful season!

Little League World Series on ESPN

ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 are currently airing the Little League World Series. Broadcasts began in 1963 with the final championship game, but this year 32 games will be aired showcasing teams from Staten Island, NY, Mercer Island, WA, Latin America, Mexico Asia-Pacific, Germany, and Japan just to name a few.

• Is this good or bad news for youth sports?


• What do children think about seeing their peers (11 to 13 years old) on television?


• If you have been watching, do the children look like they are having fun or feeling the pressure?


• How are the coaches behaving?


• Do they look like they are coaching kids or major leaguers?

Play Like A Champion Today wants to know what you think! Post your comments below and we will offer our own thoughts in response.

Celebrating Women's Equality: What About Sports?

August 26 is Women's Equality Day. On that day in 1920 the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was passed giving women the right to vote. Suffrage was a giant step toward equality in the United States, but just a step. The struggle for women’s equality continues today.

We can learn a great deal about gender equity and inequity in our society by taking a careful look at women’s sports. My Dad helped to start a C.Y.O. basketball program for girls as well as boys in our parish grade school in the late 1950s. We both played by the boys’ rules -- full-court. Yet the women’s game did not officially change to full-court until 1971. Women were competing in marathons all over the world, but the women’s marathon only became an Olympic sport in 1984.

The feminist movement and Title IX changed broke many of the barriers to women’s participation in sports. In 1972, at the time Title IX was passed, girls accounted for only seven percent of high school athletes. Today girls account for over 40%. In youth sport, the numbers are even more impressive. Today girls and boys between the ages of six and nine say that they are equally interested in sports. In the early elementary school years seventy-five percent of boys and sixty-nine percent of girls are actively involved in at least one sport. Yet as girls get older, their opportunities to participate decline more precipitously than boys’. The problem is worse in the cities with only 59% of the girls reporting they are involved in a sport compared to 80% of the boys. Some of barriers to girls’ participation are financial; others are structural and cultural. Urban programs’ typically run on scarce resources. Fears about safety as well as outmoded gender stereotypes contribute to an environment that prevents girls from experiencing same the physical and psychological benefits of sports participation as boys.

Shockingly, higher participation rates for female athletes have not translated into greater numbers of women in coaching. Before Title IX , over 90% of the coaches of collegiate women’s teams were women. Now that percentage is 42%, and it is still declining. In 1997 when the WNBA started, seven of its eight head coaches were women. The WNBA added five more teams but now only four headed coaches are women.

Girls deserve the best coaching that we can give them. Qualified males should not be discouraged from coaching women’s sports. Yet qualified women should not be discouraged from coaching men’s sports. Why aren’t we seeing more women coaching men’s sports? Why has the percentage (below two percent) remained constant when the percentage of women has been rising in other professions? The reasons aren’t too hard to find. Athletic Departments have been and continue to be largely made up of men and influenced by “old boy” attitudes, networks, and work structures. Moreover, too many of us view sports as an arena where “masculine” qualities are needed for competitive success.

Among Play Like A Champion Today’s ™ youth sport partners, male coaches outnumber females over three to one. In a revealing study of gender and youth sport coaching, Mike Messner reports an even smaller percentage of female coaches in the Pasedena area. That percentage declines as children get older youth sports programs are viewed as more competitive. Using interview and observational data, Messner argues persuasively that youth sport coaching “remains a highly sex-segregated activity” with little or no change in sight.

As we commemorate the progress we have made toward women’s equality in our country, we need to take a more critical look at sport organizations at all levels. Let’s invite qualified women to coach boys’ as well as girls’ sports at all competitive levels, and let’s make sure that we create and sustain a welcoming atmosphere for them. Let’s get more women involved in athletic administration and in high school and college coaching. Let’s reach out to girls and young women who are denied the opportunity to play sports because of where they are growing up or because their families are poor. Finally let’s set goals for the equality we would like to see in sports and begin to address the barriers we have all too long ignored. As a first step, I strongly recommend that sports leaders at all levels read the 2007 Tucker Center Research Report: Developing Physically Active Girls, which was co-edited by Nicole LaVoi, the Associate Director of the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in sport and a former research associate at Play Like a Champion Today™.

Playing Sports to Pay for College

On Saturday, April 25, 2009 ESPN’s coverage of the NFL Draft reached a new record of 36.7 million viewers. The coverage showed a number of elite athletes, their families and friends receive phone calls from coaches and agents welcoming them to their new teams (and their multi-million dollar deals). It was a dream come true for these men.

Setting goals and having dreams are essential to building confidence in young athletes. Parents and coaches should certainly encourage young athletes to pursue their dreams no matter how difficult it may seem. The story of Rudy Ruettiger, featured in the motion picture “Rudy,” is an excellent example of a young athlete who never lost track of his dream no matter what other people said. However, in the film Rudy acknowledged the hard work it would take to achieve his dream and persevered through endless amounts of adversity.

Unfortunately, parents often may have their own unrealistic hopes and dreams for their young athletes. The thought of a college scholarship to pay for college is enticing and can cause parents to expect their children to be able to pay for college through their athletic abilities. So what are the odds? According to some research posted by the NCAA, playing sports after high school is not easy. The NFL Draft represented about 0.08% of the high school athletes that go on to play professional football. Only 5.7% of the high school football players will go on to play NCAA football, which is significantly higher than any other sport. Of the men’s high school basketball players, only 3.0% will play in the NCAA and only 0.03% will play in the NBA. Women’s basketball had the lowest percentage at 0.02% in the WNBA. Even those that do go on to play NCAA are not guaranteed a full-ride. The average NCAA athletic scholarship is $10,409 ($8,707 excluding football and basketball) according to a recent New York Times article. According to the article, in 2003-2004 NCAA institutions gave athletic scholarships to about 2% of the 6.4 million high school students playing sports. The reality is that the revenue-producing sports like football and basketball receive more scholarship than other NCAA sports (average of 85 football scholarships vs. 10 soccer scholarships for teams of 25-30 players). So even if an athlete is able to earn an athletic scholarship, it is not always likely to pay for their entire tuition.

The value of playing sports, particularly at a young age, extends well beyond any monetary reward. Children consistently say that they play sports to have fun not earn a reward. One of the most important impressions parents and coaches can make on young athletes, is to encourage intrinsic motivation. Rudy persevered because he was motivated “from within” rather than by external reward. In the same way, parents should help their children develop the confidence to reach personal goals rather than comparing themselves to others or providing some external reward (money, popularity, fame, etc.). Intrinsic motivation is what PLC calls “Champion-centered” motivation.

The Implications of Performance Enhancing Drug Use

A study conducted by the Department of Health and Exercise Science at the College of New Jersey led by Dr. Jay Hoffman in 2007, showed that 1.6% (2.4% males and 0.8% females) of the athletes they surveyed reported the use of anabolic steroids, while 72.1% admitted the use of at least one supplement (protein powder, multivitamins, and high-energy drinks). The most striking finding of this study may be that approximately 6% of male 12th graders reported anabolic steroid use while only 1% of the 9th graders reported such use. In other words, “reliance on nutritional supplements increases as adolescents mature.” This calls for the involvement of teachers, coaches, parents and physicians in the education of adolescent athletes about the implications of steroid use.

Studies have clearly shown the negative effects on a person’s physical and psychological health. Use of anabolic steroids by adolescents can cause premature puberty leading to short stature, acne, testicular atrophy, breast enlargement in males, excess facial hair and the increased risk of heart attack and liver damage. Also, the psychological effects include chronic aggression or depression and the increased risk of suicide.

However, arguments that emphasize the physical riskiness of the use of banned substances often fall on deaf ears because high performing athletes willingly take risks to excel at their sport. A far more compelling argument for refusing to take banned substances is a moral argument that taking such substances gives one an unfair advantage over others. In the Hoffman study, the majority of the steroid users (60%) felt that taking steroids was not cheating. If athletes do not see steroid use as cheating, then they will be more inclined to risk hurting themselves to win.

Coaches should address this issue in the context of a team meeting as well as in one-on-one conversations. When doing so, be sure to touch upon the moral implications as well as the personal health risks. If you address only the physical and psychological effects of steroid use, then athletes may only be motivated by fear of personal harm. Although this may be a good reason, true Champions are motivated to serve others rather than themselves. Remind the athletes of the values of fair play and competition (i.e. “competing with”). These are the fundamentals to becoming a true Champion.

Developing Parents as Partners

From the Fall 2008 PLC Newsletter:

Undoubtedly one of the biggest issues that coaches discuss in our PLC workshops is how to effectively communicate with parents. In this issue of the PLC Newsletter we will briefly review the strategies in “Part 6: Developing Parents as Partners” of the SAM workshop and invite you to share your best practices or discussion topics on this blog.

1. Get on the same page. Parents and coaches want the same thing: for their children to become Champions! Parents should help coaches to become aware of their children’s particular needs, while coaches should make parents aware of the needs of the entire team. Coaches: send and introductory letter at the beginning of the year and invite parents to a preseason meeting (See www.playlikeachampion.org/coaches/parents.html)

2. Encourage parents to keep their expectations in perspective. The odds of a high school athlete becoming a professional athlete are less than 1 in 13,000 according to a study published by the NCAA: http://www.ncaa.org/research/prob_of_competing/index.html.

3. Encourage parents to act as parents. Children need their parents to positively motivate them. Coaches: help parents to understand the importance of PLC’s GROW philosophy.

4. Promote positive sideline behavior. Coaches: set expectations for positive behavior and clearly define unacceptable behavior.

5. Solicit parents’ input at the end of the season. Download copies of the Parent Survey on our website Coaches Page (www.playlikeachampion.org/coaches/surveys.html) or make copies of the survey from the back of your manual. This information will help you and PLC continue to improve.

Effective Communication Tips:

• Pre-season communication: letter and pre-season meeting.
• Establish specific times to be available to talk on the phone or by email.
• Appoint a parent liaison, a team manager, or Champion Committee.
• Collect post-season evaluations from parents and athletes.
• Host a post-season celebration.
• Send weekly email updates or create a team website. Do not communicate when either you or the parent is angry.

Please share your comments, best practices and strategies that you have used to develop parents as partners.