PLC Welcomes New Partner, St. Hugo of the Hills

Play Like A Champion Today(TM) is proud to announce its newest partner, St. Hugo of the Hills in Bloomfield Hills in the Archdiocese of Detroit. Program Founder, Clark Power, traveled with Kristin Sheehan to Detroit on November 17, 2009 to conduct St. Hugo's first coach workship. Pictured are PLC friend and St. Hugo Parent, Connie Beckett, St. Hugo Principal, Sr. Margaret VanVelzen and Clark Power. St. Hugo's is our first Detroit area partner. We are looking forward to spreading the PLC message to St. Hugo coaches, parents and athletes. We believe the surrounding parishes in Detroit will feel the "PLC difference" when they witness the St. Hugo community in their sporting environment as the sport seasons go on for St. Hugo's. For additional pictures from the workshop, please check the PLC facebook St. Hugo photo album,
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Play-Like-a-Champion-TodayTM-Sport-Education-Program/79760084958

Pope Benedict XVI Talks Sports!

Last weekend the Vatican held a two-day seminar titled, “Sports, Education and Faith: For a New Stage in the Catholic Sports Movement” in Rome. On the occasion of the event, hosted by the sport section of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Pope Benedict XVI offered his thoughts on sports and young people today. Here are a few highlights:

“In fact, when they are directed to the integral development of the person and are managed by qualified and competent personnel, sports initiatives reveal themselves as propitious occasions in which priests, religious and laity can become true and proper educators and teachers of life of young people.”

He briefly speaks out against the use of performance-enhancing
drugs. He challenges the Church to “continue to support sports for young people” for its positive aspects like stimulating “competitiveness, courage and tenacity;” pointing out, however, that the Church must educate young people through sports to avoid “all tendencies that…are dangerous to the organism, as is the case of doping.”

“In a coordinated formative action, Catholic leaders, technicians and operators must be considered experienced guides for adolescents, helping them to develop their own competitive potentialities without neglecting the human qualities and Christian virtues which make the person completely mature.”

“In this perspective, I find it very useful that this third Seminar of the "Church and sport" section of the Pontifical Council for the Laity focus its attention on the specific mission and the Catholic identity of sports associations, of schools and of oratories managed by the Church.”

Some reflection questions:

• How does your sports program contribute to the “integral development of the person?”


• Does your school or league have a plan to effectively discuss with athletes the physical and ethical implications of performance-enhancing drugs? How would you describe this plan?


• Are your coaches “experienced guides for adolescents?” Could they use some additional formation and professional development? If so, in what areas?


• Does your school’s athletic program have strong Catholic identity?

Dr. Clark Power, Play Like A Champion Today founder and director, presented at the inaugural meeting of this group within the Pontifical Council for the Laity in Rome in 2005. Since that time he created one of the only Catholic-focused, Sports as Ministry programs in the world. If you and your school are considering taking these words and putting them into action, please contact Play Like a Champion (plc@nd.edu) for more information about how we can help you develop a program that will contribute to your community’s “human and spiritual growth.”

Click here for a full copy of this letter on Zenit.org

Elizabeth Lambert’s Apology - Does Sport Reveal Character?

Elizabeth Lambert kicked, punched, and even pulled a BYU player to the ground by her poneytail. Cameras caught it all, and even though Lambert received only a yellow card, she was suspended for the game. Later the University of New Mexico suspended her indefinitely. Predictably Lambert apologized. She excused her bad behavior as due to the intensity of game: I let my emotions get the best of me in a heated situation. This is in no way indicative of my character or the soccer player I am." Really? Lambert’s comment appears to fly in the face of conventional wisdom embodied in Heywood Broun’s famous saying (often attributed to John Wooden), “Sports do not build character, they reveal it.” It is discouraging enough to concede that sports don’t build character, but are we also willing to accept Lambert’s denial that they don’t reveal it either?

Lambert didn’t just blow up once during the game, nor was there an indication that she was acting in retaliation. If the “heat” of a close game can excuse her whole pattern of behavior, then one wonders whether character has anything to do with sports. Perhaps athletes’ behavior is, as Lambert’s statement implies, situation specific. Once our emotional arousal gets too high, it is very difficult to maintain control. But isn’t character all about self-control? Even those with the strongest characters have lapses of self-control but these are generally momentary.

Lambert believes that she is a better person and a better soccer player than her actions revealed. Perhaps she simply had a tough game. Although it may be true that we are all better people than our actions at any one time may reveal, character has no meaning except in relationship to our behavior. What was objectionable about Lambert’s play was a whole pattern of bad actions throughout an entire game. Lambert’s play wasn’t simply “outside the lines” or “unsportsmanlike,” it was violent and could well have resulted in a serious injury.

We are left with a puzzle. If Lambert is right and her actions were not indicative of her character, then should we throw out the concept of character as meaningless? If Lambert is wrong and her actions reveal her character, should we blame her for being a bad person? Perhaps we can keep the concept of character without unduly condemning Lambert. It is easy to well up with righteousness indignation when others’ act in blatantly offensive ways. It is even easier to come down on others for failing to own up to their faults. It is far more difficult, however, to acknowledge that Lambert’s behavior and subsequent denial that it had anything to do with her character reflects something about a toxic sports culture of our own making. Does anyone believe that Lambert didn’t resorted to dirty play until the BYU game? How long has Lambert been pushing, punching, and pulling hair? When did it start and what did her coaches and teammates say and do when it started? How did Lambert rise to the level of a starting D-1 player without others along the way intervening? Isn’t it a bit hypocritical for the University of New Mexico to suspend Lambert indefinitely for playing the way she had been playing before the bad publicity came? Why not punish the coaches and other players?

Character development is a complicated process. It involves emotional control as well an understanding of the right way to behave and a commitment to behave that way. Most importantly character grows out of community. Who I am as an individual player depends very much upon who we are as a team. Until the sports community makes a commitment to creating a culture that takes character-building as seriously as it takes it winning, we should be the ones who are ashamed.

Building and Crossing the Bridge

I would like to share with you what Play Like A Champion Today(TM) partner, Fort Worth Christian Football League (FWCFL) is doing with their program. In their weekly program, they offer a faith perspective. This is one of their recent postings: Building and Crossing the Bridge

"Did you ever want to be an architect? Ever physically build something with your hands or make something that you thought was perfect or near perfect?

Well, you are a builder – you are an architect. In fact, all of us are. We are building a community right here, at this football game today. Look around you. There are other builders sitting right next to you. Now, look across the field. There are builders sitting there, too. We are something so beautiful, so wonderful…so blessed. We are like people with the same faith in God, with the same dreams for happiness and success for our children.

Through the FWCYFL, friendships and trust are being nurtured between boys from different schools. That same building process is being established with parents, and other family members, too.

Recently, at a soccer game, members from the same FWCYFL football team found themselves on opposing sides. When the football team members came together after the soccer game ended, it was “great game – high fives and see you tomorrows.” Their Christian attitude and respect for each other spoke volumes to other team members and the adults who watched. There was no mention of scores – who won or who lost.

For adults who witnessed this event, it brought smiles. It was an understanding of what God wants for us. He wants us to share and build friendships. He wants us to build bridges and cross them. Whether they are bridges across street, across town or across cultures, he wants us to build a community. After all, he sent us his only son, a carpenter, to show us how to build."

FWCFL Directors and PLC trainers, Frank Poeschel, Jim Breen and Brian Burkham, have built an exemplary program. This weekend, their season concludes with a "Faith and Fire" celebration and award ceremony. Watch our blog for a report on this end of season event!

The Berenstain Bears “Play a Good Game”

A friend of the program recently gave us a book from the Berenstain Bears series called The Berenstain Bears Play a Good Game. The book tells the story of Brother and Sister Bear’s experience playing soccer against the “bullies of Bear County,” the Steamrollers. Papa Bear, who coaches his children’s team, reassures his players that “its not whether you win or lose that counts, but how you play the game!” The opposing coach, Two-Ton Grizzly, tells his team that “it isn’t how you play the game that counts, but whether you win or lose!”

The book covers almost all the issues in youth sports today:
· Overemphasis on winning (in the wrong way)
· The challenges of playing fair against a cheating team
· The challenges of parents coaching their children
· Rowdy parent and grandparents in the stands
· Bad calls by the referees (and angry coaches)
· Coaches yelling at coaches! Spectators yelling at spectators!

How did they resolve the conflicts? Who won the game? You’ll have to find out for yourself! It is a great little book for young kids ages 4-7. It even has discussion questions that you can talk about with your children and activities to get out and do!