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PCA Honors Retiring Yale Athletic Director Tom Beckett

06.19.2018


The video above aired at the Ivy League Athletic Directors Conference back in May, as Tom Beckett (former Yale Athletic Director) was recognized for years of service at Yale. With Tom retiring this June, PCA wanted to honor both Tom and Kim Beckett (PCA-New England Board Member) at this ceremony, as they embraced PCA many years ago, and still today are among PCA’s most tireless advocates.

The Becketts have brought PCA into their home, into their communities at Yale, in Guilford, and to the Ivy league reaching countless coaches, kids, and their families. Two of those coaches include: Guilford’s state championship-winning high school hockey coach, Ralph Russo, who describes PCA as nothing less than the “essential framework” to coaching kids and Yale’s Ivy League championship-winning head football coach Tony Reno, who describes PCA as having made an “everlasting impact” on him giving him an appreciation of the “power and impact youth coaches have on the next generation.”

The Becketts have chosen to matter. They have helped develop a positive youth sports culture in Guilford and at Yale, and shined a light on three coaches who have won PCA’s highest coaching honor – the National Double-Goal Coach award, those coaches, Christian Appleman, Scott Markovich, and Jaye Carlson, and are now role models in their communities, and beyond.

It is easy to see why, when asked for a one-word description of Tom Beckett, his colleagues and friends answered: MENTOR, MENTOR, MENTOR, LEGEND. And, for Kim Beckett, ROCK STAR.

Below, you can see the video message to Tom Beckett from PCA Founder & CEO Jim Thompson:

The stats on Beckett's 24 year tenure at Yale are impressive, and tell a deeper story about the power of sports done right to yield success on every level, including the scoreboard. As IvyLeague.com reported, when Tom Beckett arrived from Stanford in 1994, there was just one endowed coaching position, there are now 23. The number of endowed athletic funds have more than quadrupled, from 50 to 215. Yale’s athletic endowments are 15 times higher than when Tom Beckett started, leaping from $20 million to $300 million. From national individual champions in Olympic sports to 28 national team championships, including, to cap it off, the 2017 Ivy League football title and the 2018 NCAA Championship title in Lacrosse. Yale is sending Beckett off the right way.

The Becketts’ commitment to PCA’s mission developing Better Athletes, Better People by doing sports right has borne wonderful results in the New Haven-area, youth coaches annually earn recognition as coaches who not only teach their players to compete and win but also the life lessons of confidence, discipline, collaboration and more that are so important in playing sports, and in life.

Workshops with Yale captains have produced outstanding results and a positive sports culture at Yale. Yale hosted and the Becketts organized a PCA fundraiser “Play On: Girls in the Game” featuring Julie Foudy on a panel with 5 other outstanding female athletes and coaches, including Yale’s women’s basketball and volleyball coaches, and former Yale track and tennis athletes.

Tom will continue to serve on PCA's National Advisory Board and Kim on the PCA-New England Board. Their legacy at Yale and beyond will continue to have a positive impact.

The Becketts are truly gracious, caring people, and PCA is grateful for their ongoing support – we look forward to seeing what they are up to next!