IN THIS ISSUE:
FRONT ROW
Youth- and School-Based Sports: Sportsmanship Will Find a Way
Collegiate Sports: Are Pregame Handshakes a Good Idea in Football?
Two Viewpoints
Michael Josephson Commentary: Baseball and Wall Street on Steroids
SIDELINES
Announcements
Trivia Test: Which Sport Won’t Say Which Drugs Are Banned?
You Make the Call: Should Louisville Fire Rick Pitino?
Principle of the Month: Coaching Ethics
Say What?
Trivia Test Answer
Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.
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– Knute Rockne, football coach (1888-1931)
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FRONT ROW
YOUTH- AND SCHOOL-BASED SPORTS
Sportsmanship Will Find a Way
During the height of the global swine flu scare, two high school conferences in Maine instituted a pandemic preparedness plan to tighten hygiene guidelines. One of the decisions implemented by the Southern Maine Activities Association and the Western Maine Conference was to prohibit post-game handshakes.
But the students, instead of being glad they didn’t have to do it anymore, tried to keep the tradition alive by finding different ways to get around the ban.
“The first couple of days, the kids did a tip of the hat,” Athletic Director Jack Trull of Old Orchard Beach told the Portland Press Herald. “After that, they did elbow bumps or glove bumps.” Lacrosse players tapped their sticks.
“The sportsmanship component continued,” said Athletic Director Gary Stevens of Thornton Academy.
[pressherald.mainetoday.com, 5/16/09]
Good character is more to be praised
than outstanding talent.
Most talents are to some extent a gift.
Good character, by contrast,
is not given to us.
We have to build it piece by piece by thought, choice, courage, and determination.
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COLLEGIATE SPORTS
Are Pregame Handshakes
a Good Idea in Football?
As part of a new sportsmanship initiative, the American Football Coaches Association and the NCAA are asking schools this year to begin the first game of the season with team handshakes on the field.
Coaches are the only ones required to shake before and after games, but Grant Teaff, executive director of the AFCA and former Baylor coach, says players often begin games in such a pressure-packed environment that showing respect and sportsmanship could make an important statement.
“It’s symbolic,” Teaff told USA Today. The handshakes aren’t mandatory and are only planned for the first week, but the hope is that the ritual will become routine one day.
In the meantime, football fans have weighed in on the idea. Their opinions, at least on one website, appear to be unanimous:
“Can they sing ‘Kum-ba-ya’ too? Can they?”
“Maybe the teams could stand in front of their respective benches and wave at the other team across the field.”
“And at the end, the winning team has to give the other team cupcakes and invite them to their birthday parties.”
“Just give everybody on both teams a little trophy after each game.”
“The little-known part of that new guideline is that no score will be kept.”
“While they’re at it, maybe they can force each player to write little thank-you notes to the team they played after each game.”
“The players don’t like this crap, coaches don’t like it, fans don’t like it. I am SO sick and tired of the NCAA, NFL, etc. trying to sissify what is supposed to be a violent, aggressive game.”
[sports.espn.go.com, 8/15/09; latechbbb.com/forum, 8/15/09]
Peak performers want more
than merely to win the next game.
They see all the way to the championship. They have a long-range goal that inspires commitment and action.
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– Charles Garfield, author, speaker, professor
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TWO VIEWPOINTS
Letter to Little League Parents
Jim L posted this on a blog written by residents of East Greenbush, New York.
Dear Parent,
I am your child’s coach this year, so I wanted to provide some important information. Let me just say that on the occasions that your child is not in the game, it is not due to his/her .038 batting average or inability to pick up a non-moving ball, but rather various hidden agendas and mental shortcomings on my part. Surely your future Division 1 scholarship athlete will succeed once a coach more qualified than me takes the reins.
Second, I would like to thank you in advance for not meddling in any of that pesky work surrounding the ball field. Surely that “field cleanup day” nonsense is for other parents, not you. After all, you’ve done enough for the baseball community by producing gifted offspring who can round the bases in just under three minutes thanks to your superior DNA.
Thank you also for leaving the coaching to me and me alone. Choosing to play catch in the yard with your kid could have proofed costly, resulting in caught balls, good form, and quality time with your child. Your approach of attending two of the 17 practices and then yelling at your kid for not turning an unassisted triple play is probably the way to go. I am sure his/her practice attendance was inspired by your impressive attendance at concession duty.
Babe Ruth smoked at the ball park, so by all means so should you. Please continue to ignore the “No Smoking” signs and PA announcements. Those are meant for other people.
Again, thank you for teaching your son/daughter about good sportsmanship and good citizenship. Please keep up the good work by continuing to complain about everything from the umps to the weather.
I apologize in advance for not meeting your expectations as a coach, and I thank you for letting me share a dugout with your future Olympian.
[blogs.timesunion.com/eastgreenbush, 4/26/09]
Letter to Josephson Institute
This letter was sent to us by Larry Redwine, executive director of the Continental Amateur Baseball Association, founder and president of the Southwest Ohio League, Mickey Mantle vice president for the American Amateur Baseball Congress, and baseball coach at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy.
When reading your material, I usually get the impression that you think everyone who coaches or plays on an athletic team is some kind of useless scoundrel.
I deal with thousands of people involved in youth athletics, and I have not found that to be the case. Are there some characterless individuals coaching and playing in amateur baseball? Are some of them pious and self-serving about their participation? Of course! I’ve seen people do all manner of classless things and then lecture others about how it’s about the kids.
But the overwhelming majority of people I deal with care about kids and care about character development. I know people who win championships who have winning WAY down on their priority list, yet because they do other things right that are more important, they do win.
You often seem to be talking down to people. Frankly, that's a turn-off. I don’t mind being beaten up to cause me deep self-evaluation. I do enough testing of my motives every day, so nothing you seek to do to me is any worse than what I do to myself as I seek to be a better servant leader.
But when you publish your articles, please consider that not everyone is happy being a skunk and there are plenty of people out there who don’t carry the stench.
The trouble with not having a goal
is that you can spend your life running
up and down the field and never scoring.
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– Bill Copeland, Australian cricket referee
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MICHAEL JOSEPHSON'S COMMENTARY
 Baseball and Wall Street
on Steroids
Two potent symbols of American culture are baseball and Wall Street, and both are in crisis today because they have a steroid problem.
In baseball, it’s real steroids – performance-enhancing drugs deemed so dangerous that they’re illegal to use without a prescription. When one MVP admitted his own drug use and implicated about half the league, denial became so implausible that fans began to rebel with disgust and distrust.
Now hitting records are doubted and even clean athletes must endure derisive comments and suspicion that they’re pumped-up cheaters who care too much about their own success and too little about what they’re doing to the sport and youngsters who think of them as role models.
The performance-enhancing substance destroying the credibility of Wall Street isn’t a chemical; it’s a natural substance called lying. But just as athletes began to rely on the assistance of steroids, major corporate executives and their accountants became addicted to lying.
At first, they may have believed that little lies to make their company’s performance look better were a harmless cosmetic. But lying has similar qualities of a drug: soft stuff always leads to harder stuff.
As a result, questionable forms of distortion and deception evolved into blatant manipulations and outright lies. Now, no company is beyond suspicion, we don’t know who or what to trust, and the economy has unraveled.
We can try to restore trust by more laws and stiffer enforcement, but in the end, honesty is a personal choice.
For an archive of Mr. Josephson’s commentaries, click here.
UCLA Names Michael Josephson
2009
Alumnus of the Year
The UCLA Alumni Association will present Michael Josephson (B.A., 1964, J.D., 1967) with the 2009 Edward A. Dickson Alumnus of the Year at the 65th Annual UCLA Awards on November 20.
Michael will join a prestigious coterie of honorees (Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe, Rafer Johnson, John Wooden, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tom Bradley, Carol Burnett, Francis Ford Coppola, et al.) who have manifested outstanding achievement in their professional fields and served their communities.
Go here for information on Michael’s achievements, this year’s other award winners, and the Awards ceremony.
Sign Up for Free CC! Week Resources
Last year more than 5 million kids celebrated National CHARACTER COUNTS! Week. This year a nationwide celebration and promotion of good character is needed more than ever.
Involve your community during the week of October 18-24, 2009. Click here to get started. Plenty of free resources are ready for download. This month we're offering:
- Two sportsmanship practice points
- Two lesson plans
- 15 fun CC! Week ideas
- 14 writing prompts to help kids develop character and critical thinking and composition skills
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Our Fall Catalog’s Here!
Check out all the new items we’ve added to enrich your curriculum and help transform your classroom at every grade level. We'd love to mail you a copy. Click here to send one on its way. While you’re waiting, shop at our virtual catalog.
Archives of Past Issues
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SUBSCRIBE OR UNSUBSCRIBE
| CHARACTER COUNTS! Chronicle (monthly character-education topics) |
| Commentary (weekly character essays by Michael Josephson) |
| Pursuing Victory With Honor (monthly sportsmanship topics) |
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PVWH and the Little League World Series
The Urbandale, Iowa, Little League All-Stars became one of eight U.S. teams to make it to the 2009 World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, last month. All the kids grew up in CHARACTER COUNTS! schools and were engaged with the Pursuing Victory With Honor sportsmanship program through their Little League experience.
After their 5-3 triumph over Mercer Island, Washington, in the quarterfinals, Urbandale became the first Iowa team to win a World Series game since the field expanded to 16 teams in 2001 after four previous clubs went winless.
Unfortunately, they were eliminated 8-3 in a semifinal game with Staten Island before 16,900 fans at Howard J. Lamade Stadium.
“The boys battled,” said Urbandale manager Scott Grau. “We were looking for that spark to happen, and it never came. I couldn’t be prouder of the way they conducted themselves.”
Nor could we. Congratulations, Urbandale!
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TRIVIA TEST |
Which Sport Won't Say Which Drugs Are Banned?
One major sport’s drug policy does not identify which substances – illegal, prescription, or over-the-counter – are banned yet can suspend participants indefinitely and without appeal for failed tests. Which sport is it?
See the answer below.
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YOU MAKE THE CALL |
Should Rick Pitino Be Fired?
Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino, 56, a married man with five children and a dedicated Roman Catholic who’s brought a priest on team trips, admitted to an impulsive act of adultery with a 49-year-old married woman on a table in an upscale restaurant after closing hours and later paid her $3,000 for “health insurance,” which she used for an abortion.
The woman claims he raped her, then raped her again when she met him again at the home of a team equipment manager, and forced her to have the abortion.
She also says he forced her to marry the equipment manager to get her off his back. The two are now getting a divorce.
On one hand, it doesn’t look too good for Pitino, whose contract lists as possible causes for termination: conduct that “could objectively be anticipated to bring Employee into public disrepute or scandal,” actions that “greatly offend the public,” “acts of moral depravity,” and “disparaging media publicity of a material nature that damages the good name and reputation of Employer or University.”
On the other hand, Pitino led the Cardinals to a 31-6 season last year and back-to-back Elite 8 appearances in the NCAA tournament.
Which way is the university leaning? President James Ramsey recently issued this statement: “Rick Pitino is the University of Louisville's basketball coach. He has been a role model for countless young people and a positive influence on this community. We hope this closes this chapter. We’re all ready to move on.”
What’s your verdict?
- Pitino should be fired.
- Pitino should keep his job.
Click here to vote
Results of Last Month’s Poll
Your high school volleyball team has reached the state finals. Unfortunately, the date is the same as the Senior Prom. Should the team’s seniors go to the Finals or the Prom?
| Finals |
88% |
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| Prom |
12% |
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| I'm not sure. |
4% |
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PRINCIPLE OF THE MONTH |
Principle Twelve:
Coaching Ethics
Coaches are often the most influential adults in young people’s lives. What they say and don’t say, do and don’t do on and off the field sends a message about values and reveals their priorities and character. Thus, coaches must always ask themselves: “What message am I sending?”
In morally ambiguous situations where ethical duties aren’t clear or there’s no single right thing to do, coaches must seek to discern right from wrong. For example, there’s wide disagreement on what’s cheating and what’s a clever play, and what’s unsportsmanlike and what’s a part of the game.
While illegal sports conduct is unethical, a legal act is not necessarily ethical. For example, a coach may have a legal right to terminate coaching services in the middle of a season, but it might be unfair to the administration, team, or athletes.
Principle Twelve of the Arizona Sports Summit Accord states that “Sports programs must ensure that coaches are competent to coach including basic knowledge of the character-building aspects of sports and teaching and enforcing the core values comprising sportsmanship and good character.”
Nearly 50 influential leaders in sports issued the Arizona Sports Summit Accord in 1999 to encourage greater emphasis on the ethical and character-building aspects of athletic competition. Read the full text here.
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SAY WHAT? |
“Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino admitted he [did it] with an assistant coach’s wife on a restaurant table. No one knows how this will all play out, but the restaurant just took its Grand Slam, Thank You Ma’am breakfast off the menu.”
– Comedian Argus Hamilton
“South Korea erupted in a wild celebration after countryman Y.E. Yang upset Tiger Woods to win the PGA Championship. The victory was the first time an Asian had captured a U.S. major since the Tet Offensive.”
– Comedian Argus Hamilton
“If you are thinking you would like to get him a gift, by gosh, you can’t go wrong with clean urine.”
– Comedian David Letterman on Alex Rodriguez’s 34th birthday
“My relationship with Lance Armstrong is nonexistent. Even if he is a great champion, I have never had admiration for him and I never will.”
– Tour de France winner Alberto Contador speaking about his teammate after the event
“No, you don’t. No, you don’t. As far as shaking hands, it’s something that is not done in the NBA.”
– Cleveland Cavalier LeBron James on being reminded that NBA players traditionally shake after playoff games
“Michael Vick signed with the Philadelphia Eagles and assured football fans he’s a changed man. Let the healing begin. President Obama invited him to come to the White House Friday to have a beer with him and a pit bull.”
– Comedian Argus Hamilton
“The national group, People Shocked By That, will be meeting tonight in a Volkswagen Beetle. Front seat.”
– Miami Herald columnist Greg Cote on LeBron James admitting he smoked marijuana in high school
~ Classic From the Past ~
“We don’t want our players to be monks. We want them to be better football players because a monk doesn’t play football at this level.”
– British soccer coach Sir Bobby Robson
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TRIVIA TEST ANSWER |
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NASCAR
NASCAR released a statement that read: “We believe a list is restrictive. We know there are new drugs out there every day. By having a broad policy that doesn’t list anything, we can test for any substance that may be abused.”
Former driver Kyle Petty has said that abuse of any drug, whether cocaine or Tylenol PM, can be dangerous when combined with cars moving at 150 miles per hour. “This is not shooting hoops. This is not hitting a fastball. This is life and death. In a sport like this, everything should be off limits unless there is a medical reason.”
[sports-law.blogspot.com, 5/18/09]
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CONTACT US |
Josephson Institute
9841 Airport Blvd., Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(310) 846-4800
(800) 711-2670
http://CharacterCounts.org/
http://JosephsonInstitute.org/
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CHARACTER COUNTS! Sports, a project of the nonprofit Josephson Institute, leads the Pursuing Victory With Honor sportsmanship campaign. |
