Sports Doing Good Newsletter #379

Dec. 12 – Dec. 25, 2021
Welcome to issue three hundred and seventy-nine of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Powerlifter Karenjeet Kaur Bains ‘found a love for being strong.’ Now she wants to inspire more women to take up strength sports (CNN)
2. NFL’s Emmanuel Ellerbee Launches Nonprofit To Lead Black Student-Athletes Into STEM (AfroTech)
3. Lessons beyond the playing field are just as important to Deion Sanders as Jackson State winning games (The Undefeated)
4. In New Era for College Sports, Army-Navy Is a Student-Athlete Showcase (New York Times)
5. How the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation is levelling the playing field for marginalised groups (Meaningful Business)
6. The New Technology That May Upend How We Watch Basketball (FiveThirtyEight)
7. Premier League fans are putting rivalries aside to tackle food poverty in England (ESPN)
8. The Omicron All-Stars Are Keeping the NBA in Business (WSJ)
9. Joe Johnson’s ‘fun’ Celtics moment late in game vs. Cavaliers caps off ‘surreal’ journey back to NBA (ESPN)
10. ‘I’ll keep doing this forever’: the athletes thriving on America’s senior circuit (The Guardian)


10+
Turning National Service into Meaningful Careers (Up2Us Sports)
https://www.up2us.org/blog/2021/12/9/turning-national-service-into-meaningful-careers
Ping Pong Diplomacy: A historical event with a lasting message (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/news/ping-pong-diplomacy-historical-event-lasting-message
NFL players celebrate the sixth season of the #MyCauseMyCleats initiative. (Beyond Sport)
http://beyondsport.org/articles/nfl-players-celebrate-its-sixth-my-causes-my-cleats-initiative/
Special Olympics and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Team up for Global Youth-Led Campaign for Inclusion in Education (Special Olympics)
https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/special-olympics-and-the-stavros-niarchos-foundation-team-up-for-global-youth-led-campaign-for-inclusion-in-education-835975431.html
Foot Locker, Inc. and Laureus Sport for Good Launch Multi-Country Initiative to Support Youth in Underserved Communities (Laureus)
https://www.laureus.com/news/foot-locker-inc-and-laureus-sport-for-good-launch-multi-country-initiative-to-support-youth-in-underserved-communities


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. And now we add podcasts!

Announcing the winners of the 2021 Courageous Use of Sport Award. Celebrate 5 young leaders who are using sport to lead their communities to brighter futures. (Beyond Sport/WWE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8Is-gigGUY
Magnus Carlsen won chess back from the machines (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/audio/2021/dec/20/how-magnus-carlsen-won-chess-back-from-the-machines


Introduction
“At my age, man, you just try to relish every moment, enjoy the process and live in the moment.
“That’s kind of what I’m doing right now, just living in the moment. And it’s fun.”

I excerpted that very powerful quotation from our second to last article featuring NBA star Joe Johnson, or as he is affectionately known, “Iso Joe.” Johnson, a familiar figure in the college and pro basketball world in the late 1990s and first decade of the new century, found himself back in the NBA after playing his last game in spring 2018. How did it happen? Well, covid. Normally the answer to questions inquiring about things that have been canceled or postponed, the pandemic has created some opportunities for individuals who thought their career, whatever it was (nurse, doctor, etc.) was over. Turns out one of those careers is NBA player.

The article with Joe Johnson was a perfect lead-in to our final article about “master-level” athletes, i.e. those over age 35, who either extend, or in many cases begin, an elite level athletic career, even in sports they may have never tried before.

The idea of sports ending for any of us is a bit depressing. Why? Because sports are fun! We love getting together with others in playing tennis, golf, running, soccer, basketball, etc. We love the feel of competition, of challenging ourselves to do more, to do the “unexpected.” With an aging population, but one that in many ways is better equipped to continue to be athletic, the idea of a “masters” career starting is much more likely to happen to not happen. And that is terrific.

As Joe said, “…you just try to relish every moment, enjoy the process and live in the moment.
“That’s kind of what I’m doing right now, just living in the moment. And it’s fun.” And those sentiments are at the heart of Sports Doing Good.

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.


Powerlifter Karenjeet Kaur Bains ‘found a love for being strong.’ Now she wants to inspire more women to take up strength sports (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/07/sport/karenjeet-kaur-bains-powerlifting-cmd-spt-intl/index.html

NFL’s Emmanuel Ellerbee Launches Nonprofit To Lead Black Student-Athletes Into STEM (AfroTech)
https://afrotech.com/emmanuel-ellerbee-bees-believers

Lessons beyond the playing field are just as important to Deion Sanders as Jackson State winning games (The Undefeated)
https://theundefeated.com/features/lessons-beyond-the-playing-field-are-just-as-important-to-deion-sanders-as-jackson-state-winning-games/

In New Era for College Sports, Army-Navy Is a Student-Athlete Showcase (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/10/sports/ncaafootball/army-navy-football.html

How the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation is levelling the playing field for marginalised groups (Meaningful Business)
https://meaningful.business/how-the-los-angeles-dodgers-foundation-is-levelling-the-playing-field-for-marginalised-groups/

The New Technology That May Upend How We Watch Basketball (FiveThirtyEight)
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-new-technology-that-may-upend-how-we-watch-basketball/

Premier League fans are putting rivalries aside to tackle food poverty in England (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/soccer/english-premier-league/story/4553912/premier-league-fans-are-putting-rivalries-aside-to-tackle-food-poverty-in-england

The Omicron All-Stars Are Keeping the NBA in Business (WSJ)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/nba-omicron-covid-variant-christmas-11640233815

Joe Johnson’s ‘fun’ Celtics moment late in game vs. Cavaliers caps off ‘surreal’ journey back to NBA (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32927222/joe-johnson-fun-celtics-moment-late-game-vs-cavaliers-caps-surreal-journey-back-nba

‘I’ll keep doing this forever’: the athletes thriving on America’s senior circuit (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/21/masters-athletics-track-field-kathy-bergen


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More About Us
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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