The PCA Blog

Forney Independent School District to Receive Community Impact Award from PCA-North Texas

08.14.2019


FORNEY, TEXAS (AUGUST 14, 2019) —
On August 20th at 6pm, PCA-North Texas will host the Positive Impact Awards to raise funds to improve the culture of youth and high school sports in North Texas. The event will be hosted at Las Colinas Country Club and will feature a conversation between NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin and Erin Hartigan of Fox Sports Southwest, who will serve as Master of Ceremonies.

However, the event will also have a local flair, as PCA will honor local coach award winners, high school students with scholarships, and longtime PCA-North Texas Partner Forney Independent School District with the Community Impact Award, an award being given out for only the second time (Highland Park ISD received it in 2018). When it comes to “sports done right”, few organizations do it better than Forney ISD’s athletic program. Forney ISD Athletic Director Neal Weaver, who has been at the helm since 2011, will accept this award on behalf of Forney ISD.

"Forney stands out as a partner in North Texas, going above and beyond to ensure that all kids throughout Forney are learning the important lessons sports teach,” said Scott Secules, former Dallas Cowboys QB and PCA-North Texas Senior Regional Manager. “We're extremely proud to honor Forney ISD with this year's Community Impact Award and recognize them for the important work they are doing not just on the athletic fields but in the community-at-large."

Weaver guides Forney ISD by emphasizing the big picture, keeping the development of well-rounded individuals front and center. “These truly are best practices in developing and growing young people. PCA is extremely effective at defining a model for doing so through sports. Helping people understand roles - kids, coaches, and parents - and how to manage the relationships that guide personal development through sports is the genius of PCA,” Weaver explained.


Forney ISD constantly strives to build character, work ethic, discipline, and both personal and team responsibility. PCA is excited to recognize Forney ISD for their powerful investments into using sports as a way to teach life lessons at every level. Their investment into the community is so powerful that a young person on Forney has the opportunity to play for a certified Double-Goal Coach® from the start of their sports journey until they graduate from high school.

PCA programming is front and center at Forney ISD’s annual LEAD student leadership summit, where emerging seniors from each sport at both high schools, along with head coaches from both schools, and community representatives, engage in leadership development and planning together. Forney also helps spread a positive sports culture to other communities, offering PCA training within the Metro East Junior High League, which consists of 18 middle schools.


Since partnering with PCA, Forney ISD has thrived both on and off the playing field. “We clearly see the positive effects of our partnership with the PCA in Forney ISD, but our work in seeking best methods is never done. We will continue to improve and grow, and the PCA will continue to be a common language for us as we do,” Forney ISD Athletic Director Neal Weaver explains. Here are just a few examples of the work Forney is doing within their PCA partnership:

In 2018, the Forney HS softball team won the First State Championship in school district history (founded in 1899). In 2019, Forney had multiple state-level team qualifiers and individual qualifiers as well as regional tournament berths. In fact, every varsity sport advanced to the post-season play over this period and several set program records for first district championships, best overall records, and furthest advancement into the state playoffs.

The FISD Athletic Department also set new records for numbers of participants, students signing letters of intent, and academic all-state recipients at both of its high school campuses. Further, FISD athletic teams completed thousands of hours of campus and community service last school year as a direct result of the LEAD student leadership summit.

Forney strives to develop programs that serve Forney by helping build outstanding young men and women, and that will provide a source of pride for every resident of our community.

About Positive Coaching Alliance

Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) develops BETTER ATHLETES, BETTER PEOPLE through workshops and resources for youth and high school sports coaches, parents, administrators and student-athletes. When sports are done right, sports teach. PCA ensures sports are ‘done right’ with programming that is research-based and designed to have impact at three levels in a youth sports organization or school:

  • YOUTH experience improved life skills and character development.
  • COACHES become more positive and increase their focus on using sports to teach life lessons.
  • YOUTH SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS AND SCHOOLS see their cultures become more positive and everyone involved has more fun.

Since 1998, PCA has reached thousands of organizations around the country, and affected millions of youth athletes. As a nationwide non-profit with 18 chapters, PCA has partnered with roughly 3,500 schools and youth sports organizations nationwide to deliver more than 20,000 live group workshops, reaching 19.2 million youth in 20 years of work. In addition to PCA’s live workshops, PCA also offers online courses and has over 2,000 multimedia tips and tools for coaches, parents, athletes, and leaders available free of charge on PCADevZone.org.

For more information, contact PCA-North Texas

Scott Secules
Senior Regional Manager, PCA-North Texas
P: 214-449-3770
E: scott_secules@positivecoach.org

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