Youth Sports Spotlight

The most surprising things result from PCA workshops. For example, a unique study of youth athletes as reported in this article by Mark Hyman in The New York Times. Peter Barston -- the 15-year-old subject of the article who has polled hundreds of Darien, CT youth athletes to learn their motivations for playing -- exemplifies the ethos of a Triple-Impact Competitor^TM, intent on improving self, teammates and sport as a whole.

To let us know your thoughts on Hyman's article and Barston's survey, click on the Comments link below.

At Positive Coaching Alliance, we receive too many e-mails and phone calls from anguished parents, whose children are suffering at the hands of win-at-all-cost youth sports coaches. Of course, we also hear of inspirational coaches, Double-Goal Coaches®, whose first goal is winning, and whose second, more-important goal is teaching life lessons through sports. In fact, we make sure we hear of such coaches by inviting nominations for the Double-Goal Coach Awards presented by Liberty Mutual.
 
Of the 50 award finalists named here, 20 award winners will be announced the week of February 15th. Each winner will receive a $250 cash prize and recognition in PCA publications and press releases. Any winners from Northern California will be honored at the 2010 National Youth Sports Awards sponsored by Deloitte, where you will have an opportunity to meet them.

Slated for April 17 at Stanford University's Maples Pavilion, this year's awards dinner is co-chaired by NFL Hall of Fame Quarterback Steve Young and features a keynote by Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall.
 
This year, we received a record number of nominations, proving that Double-Goal Coaching is taking hold; that more and more people value a positive, character-building youth sports experience; and that no matter the sport, no matter the location, people recognize great coaching when they see evidence of it in their children's athletic displays and in their children's smiles.
 
Collectively, the 50 awards finalists listed below have brought millions of smiles to the youth athletes they've coached. It is our privilege to bring smiles to these coaches' faces as they read their names here. We hope you also will give them a smile through your note of support, which you can write by clicking on the Comments link below.

Congratulations to: 

Doug Appleton, Firehawks Lacrosse Club (San Carlos, CA)

Bob Barrett, Grosse Point Hockey Association Bulldogs (Grosse Point Park, MI)

Roger Barta, Smith Center Redmen - football (Smith Center, KS)

Valeri Bohn, Delanco Sports Association Softball / Riverside Bulldogs Cheer (Delran, NJ)

Glenn Bradley, Comets 96 - softball (Hazel Green, AL)

Gregg Brazell, Congaree Rapid Sky 94 - soccer (Leesville, SC)

Chris Brown, Clarksburg Sports Association - wrestling (Boyds, MD)

Stan Butac, Bay Area Asian Sports Dragons - basketball (San Francisco, CA)

Debby Colberg,  5 Starz Volleyball Club (Davis, CA)

Trey Cornelius, Will McDaniel, Bob McLamb, Scotty Zornes, West University Little League (Houston, TX)

Barney Diamos, Peninsula Challengers - softball (Woodside, CA)

Kim Everist, Campolindo High School / USA Junior National Team - water polo (Pleasant Hill, CA)

Valerie Foote, AYSO Region 1466 (Antioch, IL)

Ben Frank, Anaheim Wildcats Hockey Club (Fullerton, CA)

John Gillis, MetroLacrosse (Dorchester, MA)

Matthew Goetz, Granby High School - rowing (Norfolk, VA)

Rich Gonzalez, Brentwood Youth Activities Dodgers - baseball (Bay Shore, NY)

Curtis Haggins, Roadrunner Sports Club / Mid Peninsula High School - basketball (Menlo Park, CA)

Steve Hampton, AYSO Orca U16 (Davis, CA)

Will Harris, Lincoln Lacrosse Club (Portland, OR)

Tom Jaeger, West Salem High School - soccer (Salem, OR)

Scott Kennedy, Mission High School - soccer, athletic director (San Francisco, CA)

Jim Knaeble, Broken Arrow Youth Baseball Oilers (Tulsa, OK)

Rob Kurtz, Bethesda Chevy Chase High School - soccer (Rockville, MD)

Warren Lager, Marin Pirates Swim Team - swimming (Novato, CA)

Bea Levy, AYSO Region 473 (Brooklyn, NY)

Tom MacLean, St. Regis Raiders - football (Bloomfield Hills, MI)

Patrick McCrystle, Bellermine College Prep - cross country (San Jose, CA)

Adam McPherson, Glenwood Springs Youth Hockey Association (Glenwood Springs, CO)

Linda Michele, Lady Roc Lacrosse (E Rochester, NY)

Mark Newton, Menlo School - football (Atherton, CA)

Steve Notarnicola, Chesapeake Knights Pop Warner Football (Chesapeake, VA)

Dan Odishoo, Castilleja School - basketball (Palo Alto, CA)

Paul Peterson, Providence School - football and weightlifting (Jacksonville, FL)

Ed Reynolds, Socal Water Polo (Santa Ana, CA)

Freddan Riccard, Aspen Junior Hockey (Aspen, CO)

Jim Roberts, Upper Arlington High School - water polo (Worthington, OH)

Dianne Roland, Ultra Stars Gymnastics (Greenfield, IN)

Tom Ryan, The Branson School - soccer (Ross, CA)

Virginia Schlegel, Immaculate Conception School - cross country (Millstone Township, NJ)

Monica Smith, Saddleback United Soccer Club (Mission Viejo, CA)

Martin Soyama, El Camino Fundamental High School - volleyball (Sacramento, CA)

Matthew Stecher, St. Ignatius College Prep - baseball and football (San Francisco, CA)

Scott Sweeney, Hillbrook School - basketball and football (Los Gatos, CA)

Stefan Szygiel, South Hunterdon Regional High School - soccer (Chalfont, PA)

Jack Tierney, St. Philips Saints - lacrosse (Dallas, TX)

Juan Toscano, ACE Soccer Club (Milwaukee, WI)

Lance Wilson, Prodigy Stars Soccer Club (Tecumseh, KS)

Bryan Yorke, Federal Way United Reign - soccer (Puyallup, WA)

Michelle Zeeff-McCarthy - figure skating (Grand Rapids, MI) 

I have admired recently-fired Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach since reading Michael Lewis' cover story in The New York Times Magazine on Leach's remarkable offensive innovation.
 
And I laughed at Leach's clever suggestion that graduation rates serve as a tie-breaker among Texas, Oklahoma and Tech when the three took turns beating each other last year (Texas Tech having the best graduation rate of the three!).
 
But I shuddered when I saw video of him cursing player Adam James during a Red Raiders practice.  And when Leach was fired for his treatment of James after the player suffered a concussion, it seemed unprofessional for the former coach to say in a televised interview that James was lazy and had a sense of entitlement.

Part of being a real team is that you don't throw your team members under the bus, no matter what.  I'm not sure what Leach hoped his comments would accomplish, but in my mind it just made him look small.
 
A line in one of my favorite songs, Jackson Browne's "Take it Easy," comes to mind: "Looking for a lover who won't blow my cover, she's so hard to find."
 
As a lucky man with a wife of more than 36 years who has never once thrown me under the bus with comments to others on my shortcomings (of which there may be one or two), I admire coaches who don't blow the cover of their players. 
 
It's so great when a coach has a player's back in the media after that player has made a costly mistake in a game: "That was a tough play for my guy.  The opponents played that perfectly.  I should have prepared him for that situation."
 
Imagine if Leach, in the wake of the controversy, had said about James, "I'm not going to comment on a player of mine." That would have exhibited the character -- the true toughness -- that Leach presumably was trying to cultivate in James after the player's concussion.  
 
Football is a great sport for teaching life lessons and building positive character traits partly because fear is so much more up close and personal than in less contact-filled sports.  But there is a macho blind spot among many football coaches that puts players at risk.
 
Critics of Adam James and his father -- ESPN commentator and former NFL player Craig James -- often dismiss them in emasculating terms.  The macho position that football is about building toughness, and players, who are too often coddled by wimpy parents, need to play through pain, fails to distinguish between playing hurt and gambling with a player's brain.
 
There is a difference between taping up and playing through the pain of a sore ankle and playing with a concussion.  A lifetime of difference. 
 
I have heard all I want of incoherent former NFL players who played tough in the face of concussions.  And that is where I fault Mike Leach and come down on the side of concerned parent Craig James. While sports parents can be meddlers, they have every right to ensure their children's health and safety are not jeopardized by win-at-all-cost coaches.
 
And in football, the macho call for toughness is especially pernicious.  Because football is a collision sport, the chance of injury is high and physical pain is pretty much guaranteed on almost every play.  So it may be natural to adopt a warrior mentality in which pain is laughed at...but never to the extent that a player's future is put at risk.
 
Double-Goal Coaches want to win but never at the expense of the second goal of using sports to prepare players for success in life.  Putting your players at risk of brain damage from concussions pretty much revokes your membership in the club of Double-Goal Coaches.

-- Jim Thompson, Founder and Executive Director

To let Jim know your thoughts in this topic, click the Comments link below.

The first youth sports controversy of 2010 is raging in Houston, where Yates High School posted a 170-35 win over Lee High School in a game marred by a brawl. The Houston Chronicle's Jenny Dial broke the story of Tuesday night's game, which has since made national headlines, and then filed this report after attending a PCA workshop on Wednesday night.

Let us know your thoughts on this controversy by clicking on the Comments link blow