This week marked the 34th annual “Catholic Schools Week.” Catholic Schools celebrated “the important role that Catholic elementary and secondary schools play in providing values-added education for America’s young people.” (NCEA website) For most schools, the week consists of special prayer services, Masses, dress-down days, teacher-appreciation days, and community meals shared between students, parents and school faculty.
This week should also present a wonderful opportunity for Catholic schools to promote the Catholic identity not only of their academic programs, but also of their school athletic programs. Many of our nation’s Catholic Schools are known for their competitive sports programs. Nearly half of the high school athletic programs ranked in the Top 25 by Sports Illustrated in 2007-2008 are Catholic High schools.
But the pride in our nation’s Catholic school athletic programs should not be in the numbers of state titles or Division I athletes that they produce. These athletic programs and others like it all across the country have an amazing opportunity to develop young athletes to be leaders, men and women of virtue and character, and selfless servants for others. “The Catholic school is committed thus to the development of the whole man, since in Christ, the Perfect Man, all human values in find their fulfillment and unity,” wrote the Congregation for Catholic Education in its document “The Catholic School.” (no. 35) Such an education includes “physical education and sports,” wrote the Congregation in “The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School.” (no. 84)
This is why the University of Notre Dame, with its strong reputation for academic and athletic excellence, has created a program to improve the Catholic identity of athletic programs in Catholic schools. This program presents a “Sports as Ministry” approach to coaching that is both athlete-centered and competitive. Based on the latest research in motivational psychology, theology, and sport physiology, the Play Like A Champion Today™ Sports as Ministry program is designed to help athletic programs renew their Catholic image and focus on the student-athletes. It is time to reclaim the culture of sports in Catholic schools and the Play Like A Champion Today™ program is the leading catalyst for change.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
100 to Zip! Isn’t the Lesson Obvious?
In her recent (1/24/2009) Dallas Morning News column, Jacquielynn Floyd asked us to show Covenant’s coach and players the mercy that they didn’t show in rolling up the score against Dallas Academy. Her point is well-taken. It is all too easy to point the finger at flagrant violations of sportsmanship and decency. Covent took a far worse hit than Dallas Academy; there is no justification to keep piling on the blame.
We should, however, be cautious in accepting Ms. Flynn’s depiction of what went wrong: “Well, we all get the point. The Covenant team’s greedy rout was childish and unsportsmanlike.” The rout may have been greedy, but it wasn’t “childish.” Running up the score for the sake of a record book is a distinctly adult vice; and it symptomatic of what goes wrong every day in organized sports. Children don’t compete to produce a headline, they compete to have fun. Left to their own devices, children won’t run up the score because running up the score has nothing to do with the fun of competing. Sports are meant to be play, but adults who don’t take the time to reflect on what children’s games are all about transform play into conquest. The failure to reflect on the purpose of youth and high school sports is endemic.
Let’s not point the finger at Covenant or Covenant’s coach (who was eventually fired after publically protesting his innocence) but at school administrators and leaders of athletic associations across the country who have abdicated responsibility for the conduct of their coaches and the values that sports are meant to uphold. Let’s acknowledge that the Covenant incident could happen only in a culture that puts winning before everything. Covenant administrators did not apologize until over a week after the incident had made the news. At that time, Covenant’s coach seemed puzzled by all the fuss: “It was unfortunate … it just happened.” Covenant’s administrators and coaches aren’t cruel or insensitive people; they are products of their culture. But that’s just the problem. Incidents like this keep happening every day in almost every league, usually not so blatantly and seldom so publically. They are going to keep happening until principals, parents, and sports administrators say “enough!” and commit themselves to work with their coaches in putting athletes first in their sports programs.
-Dr. Clark Power
We should, however, be cautious in accepting Ms. Flynn’s depiction of what went wrong: “Well, we all get the point. The Covenant team’s greedy rout was childish and unsportsmanlike.” The rout may have been greedy, but it wasn’t “childish.” Running up the score for the sake of a record book is a distinctly adult vice; and it symptomatic of what goes wrong every day in organized sports. Children don’t compete to produce a headline, they compete to have fun. Left to their own devices, children won’t run up the score because running up the score has nothing to do with the fun of competing. Sports are meant to be play, but adults who don’t take the time to reflect on what children’s games are all about transform play into conquest. The failure to reflect on the purpose of youth and high school sports is endemic.
Let’s not point the finger at Covenant or Covenant’s coach (who was eventually fired after publically protesting his innocence) but at school administrators and leaders of athletic associations across the country who have abdicated responsibility for the conduct of their coaches and the values that sports are meant to uphold. Let’s acknowledge that the Covenant incident could happen only in a culture that puts winning before everything. Covenant administrators did not apologize until over a week after the incident had made the news. At that time, Covenant’s coach seemed puzzled by all the fuss: “It was unfortunate … it just happened.” Covenant’s administrators and coaches aren’t cruel or insensitive people; they are products of their culture. But that’s just the problem. Incidents like this keep happening every day in almost every league, usually not so blatantly and seldom so publically. They are going to keep happening until principals, parents, and sports administrators say “enough!” and commit themselves to work with their coaches in putting athletes first in their sports programs.
-Dr. Clark Power
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