An Equal Opportunity for Fun

Today's post was written by Demetrius Jackson.  Demetrius is a junior at Notre Dame and is majoring in Sociology. He is a student in the Social Foundations of Coaching course taught by Play Like a Champion Founder and Director Professor Clark Power and Program Director Kristin Sheehan. Demetrius is also a guard on the Notre Dame Basketball Team,.

During my time at Notre Dame as a student-athlete, I have had the opportunity to be a role model to a lot of young basketball players. It is important to us to represent the program standard on and off the court--not only for ourselves, but for our families, and all the young players who want to be like us someday. Every year, the program hosts a camp for the kids. Usually, we only have a little interaction with some of the campers through autograph sessions. They also watch us play pick up every night. However, since I live in South Bend, I was able to stick around when my teammates when home, so I was able to be a coach-counselor for the camp. 

My experience as a coach was very exciting, as I had a great group of young kids. The camp was open to both boys and girls, and the one young lady on my team, was also the most talented player on our team. Most, if not all, of the kids at the camp had parents or relatives that were season ticket holders. The campers were very familiar with the players on the Notre Dame Basketball team. I felt a special need to be a great coach and a good role model because a lot of them told me that they thought of me as their favorite player, which definitely increased the pressure.

One of my biggest struggles was making sure each of my players got equal opportunities. This meant equal playing time, making sure we played as a team and shared the ball, and making sure everyone had fun. Making sure that everyone had fun was the biggest challenge, but what is any job or task without a challenge? I set up an offense that required us to make sure everyone touched the ball before a shot went up in a half court setting. I tried to keep things exciting for my players by celebrating everything. Whenever an individual made a big shot or a minor defensive block, I celebrated with them like I was a player. I did my best to focus on teaching them how to play the game the right way while also having fun. In youth sports today, there is such a emphasis placed on winning that some kids get “burnt out” or lose their passion by the time they are young adults, and I didn't want that to happen with my kids. 

From our reading in the Social Foundations of Coaching class, I have learned that play gives children the encouragement and physical activity they need to develop their brains for future learning.  Through play, children discover, invent, and create. They mature in their social skills and ways of thinking, learn how to deal with emotions, improve physical abilities, and find out about themselves and their capabilities. A child’s “play’ forms a solid foundation for a life of learning.  I was able to apply this by giving the kids fun drills and keeping them actively engaged and promoting an environment where worked hard and built each other up.

Recognition Has No Gender

Today's blog post was written by Remy Lewis.  Remy is a Psychology Major at Purdue University North Central and is a former Division One Track and Field Athlete at Indiana State University.  He is currently an intern with Play Like a Champion.  He is also a Coach, Scout, and Trainer for Sports Prep NBA.

In an age where sports are often dominated by men, women have made countless strides towards gender equality in all sports. Thanks to Title IX and overall cultural advancement, these days you can find men and women with generally equal opportunities to participate in sports at the high school and college levels--and at some schools, the women's teams often outperform the men.

But what about the publicity? What about the recognition? Are we giving equal opportunities AND recognizing and publicizing the highest levels of achievement? Some who may be stuck in the past may feel as if we have given the female athletic community enough for them to be satisfied, but the female athletic community, and those of us who may coach superb female athletes would tend to disagree.

Photo Courtesy of usssapride.com

How many of you recognize this symbol to the left? Until recently, I didn't know that we had a National Professional league for women playing fast pitch softball. This fast pitch league currently features 5 teams with many of the top college softball players in recent years. Some form of this league has been prevalent since 1997, but has reshaped and reformed itself in a bid for national recognition. According to its history, it has been shown on national television including its championship games. At one point, teams from the league competed with Olympic teams from around the world during the regular season. Now it is working on expansion so that it may have many home grown competitive teams just like Major League Baseball, then some of its All-Stars could represent the U.S. in the Olympics.

Photo Courtesy of WNBA.com

Other than few sports fans at the University of Notre Dame, who can recognize this picture? For those of you that may not watch enough ESPN, this is a photo of Notre Dame Women's Basketball Guard Jewell Loyd who was drafted as the #1 overall pick in the WNBA. The WNBA draft was held last week on April 16th 2015, a fact which went largely unnoticed accept in key media markets that either fed players or host teams. Jewell was a 2015 Consensus All-American who helped lead her team to the National championship game against UConn.

Where were you during last years NPF (National Pro Fastpitch) championship game? Or do you remember who won the WNBA Championship Game last year? (Phoenix.)  How can we not promote these types of events for our athletes? Some of these women represent our country in the Olympics, and many of them represented our favorite collegiate programs with pride. The athletes are out on the field or court for the name on the front of the jersey and the love of their game. We will never see women reach the status of men in professional of even collegiate sports until we begin to recognize these women for the amazing athletes they are.  Play Like a Champion strives to promote equal opportunities for all athletes of all ages, but the rest of the country still needs to realize that the women participating in professional sports are not only some of the top female athletes in our country, but some of the most outstanding athletes in the world. We should all give them the respect, support, and recognition they have earned and deserve.