The Institute for International Sport and the Positive Coaching Alliance at Stanford University have selected 19 individuals to be honored as the 2007 Sports Ethics Fellows. These Sports Ethics Fellows have demonstrated admirable leadership in the areas of fair play and sportsmanship. Sports Ethics Fellows include nationally known individuals, as well as others who have engaged in developing sportsmanship and honorable competition on a local scale.
The Institute for International Sports www.internationalsport.org, which is based at the University of Rhode Island and administers the annual Sports Ethics Fellows selections, is pleased to have worked with the Positive Coaching Alliance at Stanford University www.positivecoach.org on the 2007 selections. "We have greatly admired the work of the Positive Coaching Alliance and its executive director Jim Thompson," said Dan Doyle founder and executive director of the Institute for International Sport. "We especially appreciate their fresh input and enthusiasm while we made the 2007 selections."
The Sports Ethics Fellows are being announced on March 6 as thousands of schools and youth organizations celebrate the 17th annual National Sportsmanship Day administered by the Institute for International Sport.
The 2007 Sports Ethic Fellows include:
TOM ARCHIE heads Pomperaug Lacrosse, a grassroots organization that serves several communities in Southern Connecticut. The organization encourages its players to Honor the Game at every possible turn. Players wear jerseys with that pro-sportsmanship message and carry it emblazoned on signs at the league's annual parade. Archie aggressively promotes positive coaching to many neighboring youth sports organizations.
BARBARA BLEIWEIS serves as a coach and official for McLean (VA) Youth Athletics. She also is a tireless leader and advocate for using sports to develop character and teach life lessons. Since cancer claimed her late husband, Mark Bleiweis, himself an influential youth sports coach, Barbara also has launched sports-driven events to raise funds for the fight against cancer.
SENATOR JOHN CHAFEE (posthumously) was instrumental in the development of National Sportsmanship Day, offering encouragement and staff support as the concept was being developed by the Institute for International Sport. At a 1990 press conference in Washington, D.C., he correctly predicted that National Sportsmanship Day would raise awareness of sportsmanship and ethical practices among millions of young people, coaches and parents.
BART CONNER is a two-time Olympic Gold Medal Gymnast who serves youth athletes in several capacities. He is a long-time board member of Special Olympics, a National Advisory Board member of Positive Coaching Alliance and still works directly with young gymnasts at The Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy. At that Norman, Oklahoma-based facility, he and his wife, fellow Olympic Gold Medalist Nadia Comaneci, provide all their students a positive, character-building experience.
RAY GREENBERG, president of the Washington, DC-area National Capital Soccer League (NCSL) and vice president of the Virginia Youth Soccer Association, has maintained a singular focus on ethical approaches to sports throughout his years as a youth soccer administrator. In each of his roles, starting as manager of his eldest son's recreational team, as chair of NCSL's Rules & Discipline Committee, and in his current posts, Greenberg has made it of paramount importance that players, coaches, referees and parents "honor the game."
KIM GUILLEN is a soccer coach and member of the leadership team of Jack London Youth Soccer based in Oakland, California. She has been a leader in ensuring that coaches and parents receive training in positive coaching and making those techniques an integral part of the culture of Jack London Youth Soccer.
JACQUELINE HANSEN is the Coaching Education Program Director for the Amateur Athletics Foundation of Los Angeles, an organization that is one of the legacies of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and offers grants to youth sports organizations throughout Southern California. AAF's Coaching Education Program includes clinics focusing on sound coaching philosophy, emphasizing sportsmanship. Hansen and AAF have had direct impact on thousands of youth sports coaches. Hansen is a former world-record holder in the women's marathon, the first woman to break 2:40 - proof that sportsmanship can complement competitiveness.
PHIL JACKSON is the nine-time NBA championship coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. He serves youth athletes in his role as National Spokesperson for Positive Coaching Alliance. By speaking and writing on behalf of the non-profit dedicated to transforming youth sports, he brings needed attention to the importance of youth sports providing a positive, character-building experience. His use of positive coaching in the NBA proves the techniques apply to all levels of sport, which encourages youth sports coaches to use positive coaching for the benefit of youth athletes.
JOHN KESSEL is Director of Membership Development and Disabled Programs at USA Volleyball. He is an indefatigable advocate of making youth sports -- especially but not limited to volleyball -- a positive, creative and fun experience for players from grade school to the most elite level.
GEORGE KLEIN, president of the Portland, Ore.-area Putnam Youth Basketball league, oversees an organization dedicated to character development. He also actively encourages neighboring youth sports organizations to adopt similar principles and reaches out to local media to address youth sports issues. Klein and several hundred Putnam Youth Basketball League players celebrated National Sportsmanship Day in a recognition ceremony at halftime of a March 6 Portland Trailblazers game.
TOM KUYPER writes a weekly column on youth sports for The Arizona Republic, which is syndicated to other Gannett newspapers, and co-hosts "The Kids and Sports Radio Show" on Xtra Sports 910 AM in Phoenix. In both venues, Kuyper often emphasizes sportsmanship and character issues and answers pressing questions faced by youth athletes and their parents. Kuyper, a former Arizona State University basketball player and current color commentator on ASU games, also reaches thousands of youth athletes as founder and president of Phoenix's Athletes in Training and Tom Kuyper Basketball Camps.
SENATOR CLAIBORNE PELL was an early supporter of the Institute for International Sport. As a United States Senator for Rhode Island, he was instrumental in the creation of the Scholar-Athlete Games concept at the Institute for International Sport and the research and development of National Sportsmanship day, now in its 17th year of existence.
PETE ROSELL coaches for Brea Little League Baseball in Southern California, focusing year after year on character development and sportsmanship. At the beginning of each season, he emphasizes to team parents that they must respect umpires and opponents. Also, each player receives an assignment to write about a character trait, which Rosell then frames and presents as a keepsake to the player at the season-ending team party. He also distributes copies of Grantland Rice's poem "How to Be a Champion" and ensures that win or lose his players strive to deliver on the poem's message.
DAVID SHIELDS is Affiliated Associate Professor in the Division of Teaching and Learning at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. A former Division 1 college athlete, his work on the noble concept of competition degrading into "de-competition" is a major theoretical contribution to those who strive to transform the culture of youth sports.
BARRY SKLAR (posthumously) was senior legislative aide to U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell (D-Rhode Island). Sklar led a U.S. Senate staff team that undertook a six-month research project to find out the extent of sportsmanship initiatives being administered in schools around the country. That research led to the creation of National Sportsmanship Day, which is administered by the Institute for International Sport and is celebrated by over 13,000 schools annually.
RICHARD TASHER is president of Northwest United FC, a 26-team Premier Soccer Club that serves nearly 3,000 boys and girls in Northwest Indiana. Tasher makes sportsmanship integral to the organization both as a board member and as coach of Northwest United FC's U-15 Boys Premier MRL team.
PATRICK WHITE has spent most of his life in the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO). He started as a player in 1965, has been refereeing since age 13 and has served as a referee instructor since 1990. Entering his fourth year as commissioner for Region 630 in Rancho Santa Margarita, California, he is responsible for 3,300 players, 375 coaches and 900 referees. Ever mindful that youth soccer is meant for players to enjoy, White preaches and practices letting the action flow fairly rather than detracting from the game by refereeing to the letter of the law.
JEANNE YAGI is a community activist on the Island of Hawaii. She has worked tirelessly to make youth sports on the Big Island a positive, character-building experience for every youth athlete. She initiated the community conference series "Facilitating Extraordinary Accomplishments in Hawai'i's youth," and has involved academia, business, schools and other organizations in the project.
KIMANI YOUNG is athletic director at New Heights Basketball. Young oversees programs for New York City youth athletes that encourage them to become educated, productive and caring members of society by teaching teamwork, discipline, goal-setting, work ethic and moral values. After playing for Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins at the University of Texas El Paso, where he scored more than 1,000 career points and earned his degree in Criminal Justice, Young returned to his roots in New York and has served for more than eight years as a coach and leader.
