July 21 – Aug. 3, 2019
Welcome to issue three hundred and seventeen of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Woman Can’t Walk, So She Teams Up with Blind Man for Hiking: ‘He’s the Legs, I’m the Eyes’ (Good News Network)
2. The most important steps: How Sam Cerio overcame her horrific gymnastics accident (ESPNW)
3. Megan Rapinoe, athlete activism, and the changing face of marketability (SportsPro)
4. Just Some Kids from Northeast Ohio (Bleacher Report)
5. Billie Jean King exclusive: ‘We’re having a second wave of sports activists. It’s in the air’ (Daily Telegraph)
6. Fifa Council approves 32-team Women’s World Cup for 2023 (SportBusiness)
7. Fan who threw 96 mph at in-stadium radar booth signs contract with A’s (USA Today)
8. Ryan Leaf uses his story to help other former NFL players (The Gardner News)
9. Fabio Cherant: ‘Just a small town kid trying to make a name for myself’ on the Contender Series (The Body Lock)
10. Performance-Driven, Purpose-Driven: How Audi’s ‘Goals Drive Progress’ Program Will Boost the Next Generation of MLS Players (Inc.com)

10+
Letters to 87 (The Players’ Tribune)
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/dwight-clark-49ers-letters-to-87
Protecting our planet: The sport and sustainability series (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/news/protecting-our-planet-sport-and-sustainability-series
Coach: one woman’s journey to the UEFA A coaching license (Beyond Sport)
http://beyondsport.org/articles/coach-the-movie/
Confidence Reboot (w/ Sarah Killion) (NAYS)
https://www.nays.org/sklive/features/confidence-reboot/
Getting into the game: Leveraging a mega sporting event to promote children’s rights (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/news/getting-game-leveraging-mega-sporting-event-promote-childrens-rights

We present again our “Featured Video” offering(s). With the explosion of video content out there highlighting the good in sport, we want to showcase such content for your enjoyment and learning. This will be an ongoing effort.

This Roller Derby Team Is Jamming for Indigenous Representation (Great Big Story)
https://www.greatbigstory.com/stories/delta-indigenous-roller-derby-team/

Introduction
As we have mentioned before, it is very hard to pick out favorites when it comes to the stories we feature in the newsletter. There are just so many which are so good. We can, however, pick out certain stories that seem to take hold of us in a special way. One of the ways involves having some connection to the person or subject featured in the article. We have two such stories this week.

Our first story this week is so gripping because it is so “logical.” A woman who does not have use of her legs teams up with a gentleman who lost his sight to hike and climb mountains. Seriously. Could there be a better approach to personal obstacles than collaborating with others? That is what we have with Melanie Knecht and Trevor Hahn. The connection we have to Melanie and Trevor is that we reached out to them directly to tell them how moved we were by their story and that we wanted to send them Love Equals shirts. We were able to connect with them and the shirts are on their way. (Sending Love Equals shirts to others featured in Sports Doing Good will continue.)

The other story this week with a “personal” connection has to do with Ryan Leaf, the former college football star and NFL quarterback. Ryan spoke to the students and faculty/staff at Farmingdale State College, where I teach, last year. I went to the talk, admittedly, in part to hear from someone who seemed to not be able to get out of his own way. Every time he was in the news, it was for a bad reason, e.g. poor play, drugs, crime, etc. I was frankly surprised he was still alive. Well, Ryan’s talk was GREAT. I was so moved by his honesty and his still developing perspective on life and what is important. I was really moved by what he had to stay and count that event one of the best I have seen in 10 years at the college.

The other stories we are proud to feature this week include: the amazing comeback of college student-athlete Sam Cerio from a devastating injury in gymnastics; a look at athlete activism and athlete marketability; the early success we are seeing from the students and administration from LeBron James’ I Promise School; sporting legend and equal rights activist Billie Jean King and what she is seeing in this emerging trend of athlete activism; FIFA’s decision in increase the number of teams in the next Women’s World Cup; how a young man threw a baseball so fast that a professional team decided to sign him to a contract; mixed martial artist Fabio Cherant; and a special, sponsored program in Major League Soccer which aims to find and develop future soccer stars.

An event coming up this week in NYC worthy of your attention is a panel hosted by South Asians in Sports (www.sainsports.com), “How Social Media is Impacting Sports Culture.” You can register for the panel, which takes place on Tuesday, August 6 in New York City, by clicking here. Please note while the event is free, spots to attend are filling up fast so try to register as soon as possible.

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Finally, we want to highlight again “The World’s Big Sleep Out,” taking place on Dec. 7 in various cities around the world. While not sports-focused, we are mentioning it because the issue of homelessness has found a spot in the Sports Doing Good newsletter many times over the years. We have featured non-profit Street Soccer USA, highlighted the work of professional athletes like Chris Long and Mookie Betts to bring attention to this pervasive issue, and mentioned the fact that there are youth, high school and even college athletes who battle homelessness as they try to make their way in the classroom and on the playing field.

Again, the event is “The World’s Big Sleep Out,” https://www.bigsleepout.com/. There are many ways to participate so please take a look now. Dec. 7 will be here before you know it!



Finally, if you think others would like to receive the newsletter, please feel free to forward it on or have them contact us directly at sab@sportsdoinggood.com. (If you do not want to receive the newsletter anymore you can use the Unsubscribe button at the end of the email)

So, enjoy. And have a good week.

Woman Can’t Walk, So She Teams Up with Blind Man for Hiking: ‘He’s the Legs, I’m the Eyes’ (Good News Network)
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/woman-who-cant-walk-teams-up-with-blind-man-for-hiking/

The most important steps: How Sam Cerio overcame her horrific gymnastics accident (ESPNW)
http://www.espn.com/espnw/culture/feature/article/27121284/the-most-important-steps-how-sam-cerio-overcame-horrific-gymnastics-accident

Megan Rapinoe, athlete activism, and the changing face of marketability (SportsPro)
http://www.sportspromedia.com/opinion/megan-rapinoe-donald-trump-athlete-activism-brand-ambassadors-marketability

Just Some Kids from Northeast Ohio (Bleacher Report)
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2845813-inside-lebron-james-i-promise-academy-one-year-later

Billie Jean King exclusive: ‘We’re having a second wave of sports activists. It’s in the air’ (Daily Telegraph)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2019/07/19/billie-jean-king-exclusive-having-second-wave-sports-activists/

Fifa Council approves 32-team Women’s World Cup for 2023 (SportBusiness)
https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/fifa-council-approves-expansion-of-2023-womens-world-cup-to-32-teams/

Fan who threw 96 mph at in-stadium radar booth signs contract with A’s (USA Today)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/rockies/2019/08/02/mlb-nathan-patterson-fan-96-mph-signs-athletics/1898405001/

Ryan Leaf uses his story to help other former NFL players (The Gardner News)
https://www.thegardnernews.com/sports/20190801/football-ryan-leaf-uses-his-story-to-help-other-former-nfl-players

Fabio Cherant: ‘Just a small town kid trying to make a name for myself’ on the Contender Series (The Body Lock)
https://thebodylockmma.com/ufc/fabio-cherant-just-a-small-town-kid-trying-to-make-a-name-for-myself-on-the-contender-series/

Performance-Driven, Purpose-Driven: How Audi’s ‘Goals Drive Progress’ Program Will Boost the Next Generation of MLS Players (Inc.com)
https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/performance-driven-purpose-driven-how-audis-goals-drive-progress-program-will-boost-next-generation-of-mls-players.html

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Our goal is to have Sports Doing Good be a portal housing original content and excerpts from and links to the increasing number of articles, websites, video, and other media that showcase the good in sports and society. We aim to celebrate those concepts, activities, events, and individuals by highlighting them for a wider audience. Much of the news today, whether sports- related or not, is incredibly negative and increasingly polarizing, biased, and quite annoying. We are trying to refocus some of the discussion on the good, with a focus on sports.

Our mission is to have Sport Doing Good be a consistent, and significant, contributor to the areas of sports, social responsibility and development. We look forward to partnering with other stakeholders in producing content, in creating and/or sponsoring athletic and service events, knowledge sharing, and conferences/seminars, and even having a commercial arm that could be the source of innovative social businesses.

We invite you to send in news, press releases, and guest pieces for possible publication, and email us with suggestions about the content and format of the newsletter and Sports Doing Good website.

Contact Information
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Sarbjit “Sab” Singh
sab@sportsdoinggood.com
516-287-7141
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