Changing Lives

How Sports Planners Are Impacting Youth For Life

By Marcia Bradford

It has long been acknowledged that young people can learn positive values while playing sports, but many organizations are using sports to attract youth to programs that teach important life skills. A critical component of these and similar programs is the mentorship role played by planners, coaches and volunteers.

“A number of positive values, such as respect and integrity, are inherent in the game of golf,” said Joe Louis Barrow Jr., CEO of The First Tee. “By participating in a non-threatening, non-instructive environment, kids typically learn to set goals, control emotions and resolve conflicts while learning a game that can be played for a lifetime.”

An initiative of The World Golf Foundation, The First Tee was created in 1997 as a way to bring golf to young people who would not otherwise be exposed to the game, Barrow said. Organizers soon realized that the program offered a greater opportunity than just teaching the game of golf, and The First Tee Life Skills Experience was developed with the help of academic, coaching and golf experts. Today, thousands of volunteers, including many professional golfers, help millions of kids ages 5-18 learn such things as patience through putting.

Johanna Thomashefski, a founder of Lacrosse for Life, which focuses on San Francisco’s inner-city middle school students who do not usually get involved in team sports, refers to the program as “enrichment.” While learning to play the game, participants also learn about teamwork; they gain an understanding about the need to respect each other and those in authority. They also begin to focus on setting higher standards for themselves and their teammates, to push themselves to achieve and, most important, to take responsibility for their own actions.

The interaction between the young participants and the mentors involved in the program—whether they are organizers, coaches, parents, etc.—is rewarding to everyone, Thomashefski said. “We have an amazing group of committed coaches, many of whom are members of USA Lacrosse and want to give back to the game,” she said. “But we also have many adults who aren’t even familiar with the game of lacrosse; they might have been collegiate athletes in other sports or had someone help them overcome adversity when they were young. Whether they are helping students with their studies, teaching them about sportsmanship or coaching, all volunteers teach important skills to our young athletes.”

It Is How You Play The Game
Winning is not typically a primary goal of programs that seek to teach life skills through sports, and in the Houston-based Fun Fair Positive Soccer (FFPS) program, it is considered bad manners for parents to keep score. The organization was founded in 1986 by Jack Hendrie and other parents in Katy, Texas (near Houston), who felt that most sports programs put too much pressure on kids to perform and place too much emphasis on winning.

Citing a statistic that “71 percent of all kids in America quit sports by age 13,” Hendrie said the goal of Fun Fair Positive Soccer is “to make sure every kid has a positive experience in sports.”  All participants are given equal playing time and get to play all positions on the field, and teams are balanced with an equal number of skilled and lesser-skilled players. Parents, many of whom serve as coaches in the all-volunteer program, are all trained in positive teaching methods. If there is any yelling from the coaches or the spectators, it has to be positive, using the words “good, great, nice, go,” as in “good kick, great dribble, nice shot, go team.”

“For me, this program is all about setting up an environment that encourages the development of good values,” Hendrie said. “When you ask kids what they want from sports, they will tell you they want to feel valued…and that they are an important part of the team. They don’t feel loved and respected when they are not allowed to play or when they are criticized or embarrassed by coaches, parents or spectators.”

A look at the numbers indicates that many people share Hendrie’s sentiments about youth sports. There were 150 players in Katy enrolled during the first season of FFPS. By 2006, more than 16,000 kids in 17 Houston-area communities were participating.

Bridging Cultural Divides
International peace through understanding of other cultures is the ultimate goal of the People to People program, which was originally established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Historically, the program has focused on academic international exchange programs, but since 2000, when the Sports Ambassadors division was added, the program has included “an athletic, educational travel experience that cultivates personal growth and development, all while providing leadership life lessons through sport.”

Each summer, athletes in grades five through 12 gather in countries around the world to compete in such sports as bowling, soccer, tennis, swimming, volleyball, baseball, basketball and wrestling. They are nominated by their parents, former sports ambassadors or coaches involved with People to People.

“Our program is less about athletic skills and more about gaining maturity,” said Jeff Geldien, sports director with People to People. “We are using sports to teach leadership skills. The participants are not necessarily the higher-level competitors; in fact, most are mid-level athletes,” he said. “Along with the skills of the sport, we teach them the importance of nutrition and fitness. We focus on teamwork, controlling emotions and handling winning and losing in a gracious way—because ultimately we want them to learn how to step up and be leaders.”

Participants also learn a number of practical skills, such as how to deal with international travel and how to manage their time and money while away from home. Most important, Geldien said, they learn how to interact with people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. Sports ambassadors from the United States begin this interaction when they meet their teammates from other parts of the country. Once they travel to the site of the competition, they begin practicing as a team. Then, as the games get under way, they meet young athletes from other parts of the world.

There are a number of “sports leaders” involved in the program, from the area sports administrators who handle the communications and scheduling, to the delegation managers who are familiar with the destination countries, to the team leaders who supervise travel and activities. Along with the athletic directors and coaches, these individuals serve as important mentors to the youth, Geldien said. “The kids really look up to these coaches and many will return, as alumni, to share the skills they have learned with the next group of young sports ambassadors.”

Getting Results
There are many indications that programs that teach positive values along with sports are achieving their goals, including a growing number of participants and former participants who come back to help organize and coach. The best indication of success, Barrow said, is when participants of The First Tee demonstrate the leadership skills they have gained through the program. “Recently, a young woman, about 15, from the Atlanta area, returned to the program to help out some of the younger participants. She expressed concern for them and said she wanted to make sure they didn’t make the same mistakes she did when she was their age. It was clear that she had become a mentor,” he said. “It’s incredibly rewarding to see the older kids take responsibility for teaching values to the younger kids. That’s the highest goal we can hope to achieve.”