Youth Sports Spotlight

This new feature at our Youth Sports Nation blog invites you to ask PCA the questions you face as a coach or sports parent. Periodically, we will pose a submitted question to Youth Sports Nation to gain as much helpful input as possible. Then we will post an answer written by PCA staff.

Our first question:

"As a high school volleyball coach I have the chance to put together a team loaded with skill and talent. But I know I also should include some players who have a great attitude and work ethic, even if they are less talented. How do I strike the right balance?"

Out of the 4 million or so youth and high school coaches in Youth Sports Nation, just 24 are finalists to receive Double-Goal Coach^® honors at PCA's 8th Annual National Youth Sports Awards sponsored by Deloitte. All 24 deserve praise and support for striving to win and teach life lessons through sports.

The same is true for the nine finalists for PCA's Honoring the Game Award for organizational excellence.

To leave your shout-outs and stories of how these coaches and organizations impact their communities, click on the Comments link beneath the list:

DOUBLE-GOAL COACH AWARD FINALISTS

Chris Abbott - Headfirst Baseball - Washington DC

Jamal Adams - Loyola High School Basketball - Los Angeles, CA

Doug Appleton  - Firehawks Lacrosse Club - San Carlos, CA

Ed Buller - Oak Grove High School Football - Santa Clara, CA

Jarvis Coley and Stara Wilkins - Southwest Football League - Houston, TX

Fred Colman – Greater Boston Youth Hockey League/Needham (MA) Youth Hockey

Maria Giamanco - Schreiber High School Volleyball - Seaford, NY

Ted Gustus - Academics in Motion/Canarsie High School Basketball - Brooklyn, NY

Don Hahn - San Mateo (CA) Little League/AYSO/Aragon High School Baseball

Richard Kruse - Ursuline Academy Cross Country and Track - Newark, DE

Ron Lakis - Mustang Soccer - Danville, CA

Renee Leake - Highland School Softball - Manassas, VA

Dustin Litvak - Los Angeles Water Polo Club/Agoura (CA) High School Water Polo

Patrick McCrystle - Bellarmine College Preparatory Cross Country - San Jose, CA

Linda Michele - Lady Roc Lacrosse/East Rochester High School Field Hockey and Lacrosse - Buffalo, NY

Ted Minnis - Stanford Water Polo Club/Pacific Zone Youth Water Polo Team/Castilleja School Water Polo and Basketball - Atherton, CA

Charlie Moulton - California Rush Frenzy (soccer) - Sacramento, CA

Sean O'Keefe - American Youth Soccer Organization - Sunnyvale, CA

Zdravko Popovic - Internationals Soccer Club - Akron, OH

Karen Ronney - Patrick Henry High School Tennis - Irvine, CA

Michael Siciliano - Duxbury (MA) Youth Football

Craig Snyder - Colorado Edge Soccer Club - Arvada, CO

Kent Tashiro - Aiea (HI) Golden Eagles/Iolani School Softball

HONORING THE GAME AWARD FINALISTS

Academics in Motion (basketball) - New York, NY

American Youth Soccer Organization - Hawthorne, CA

Berkeley Little League (baseball) - Bayville, NJ

Girls in the Game (multiple sports) - Chicago, IL

Kamehameha Schools Hawaii (multiple sports) - Kea'au, HI

Marine Corps Community Services, Semper Fit Youth Sports (multiple sports) - Okinawa, Japan

Sports Challenge Leadership and Education Alliance (soccer, basketball) - Washington, DC

St. Raphael Football - Naperville, IL

York County Lacrosse Association - York, PA

In our last "Youth Sports Nation" blog item before the holidays, we invite you to reflect on 2008 by considering the year's Bottom 10 Moments in Sports and Top 10 Moments in Sports.

We release these lists each year to call attention to what is wrong and right about youth sports and the examples that youth see in pro and college sports. Each year, we also provide a tool that coaches and parents can use to help children take life lessons from the incidents cited in our lists.

The teaching tool for 2008 is an excerpt from Positive Sports Parenting, the latest book by PCA Founder and Executive Director Jim Thompson.

More information on Positive Sports Parenting

Purchase Positive Sports Parenting 

Download a printable PDF of PCA's "Bottom 10 "and "Top 10" lists and Positive Sports Parenting excerpt

Share your voice on how we can ensure that 2009 has many more "Top" moments by clicking on the Comments link below!

My daughter, a sophomore at the University of Nevada in Reno, came home for a visit yesterday after watching Saturday night’s basketball game between Nevada and our bitter rival, UNLV.  She is a devoted fan for her school, she went to high school with one of our new Freshman phenoms (Luke Babbit is a player to watch), and took time out of her finals study schedule to attend the game.  This game meant a lot to her going in.

What about it made the biggest impression on her?  She could not stop talking about the little note that was attached to her seat in the arena when she arrived.  It was the same little note attached to thousands of other seats.  It was a note from Nevada Head Coach Mark Fox acknowledging that the rivalry between UNR and UNLV is intense and sometimes breeds inappropriate fan behavior.  Coach Fox reminded the fans that these games attract families, including his own, and that we need to set a good example for the kids at the game. 

He did not want these kids to be subjected to vulgarities or any other sort of negative examples.  He wanted the spirit of the rivalry to live, but not at the cost of getting out of line in showing support.  He even included the written forms of several Nevada cheers so the fans would have some appropriate alternatives when it came time to yell for the team.

This is a rivalry that is good for sports, but has degraded at times to bottle throwing, assaults, and vulgarities that would embarrass a Marine.  At this game, however, by Lucy’s report, the fans were as excited about the game as ever, but controlled the way they exhibited their excitement. 

As a Champion of the Positive Coaching Alliance, I would like to thank Coach Fox and the UNR Athletic Department for this novel way of encouraging fans to exhibit one of the PCA’s core principles, “Honor the Game.”  It is always clearly a “home court advantage” to let the fans be brutal to the visiting team, but Coach Fox clearly sees the bigger picture and would not want that advantage at the toll it takes on the meaning of the game or the purpose of intercollegiate athletics.
--Dan Dugan, PCA Champion, Reno, NV

Nearing the Nov. 30 deadline for National Youth Sports Awards nominations, Will Bardenwerper of The New York Times beautifully covered one of our 2006 winners, Tal Bayer.

Bayer -- a dozens-playing white man, who leads an all-African-American rugby team at Washington, DC's Hyde Leadership Public Charter School -- continues to inspire, using sport to build racial and cultural bridges that save lives.

For your dose of inspiration:

• read The New York Times' article and view the accompanying video

• watch Tal's National Youth Sports Awards acceptance speech 

• learn the criteria for Double-Goal Coach and Honoring the Game awards

• download nomination forms or use our online coach nomination form. 

Leave your comments by clicking the Comments link below, and stay tuned for exciting news about the 2009 National Youth Sports Awards sponsored by Deloitte.