Jan. 29 – Feb. 11, 2023
Welcome to issue four hundred and seven of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Marcus Rashford and the goal celebration that is transcending football (The Athletic)
2. The 25 best fictional coaches (YardBarker)
3. Tennis Participation Surges For Third Year In A Row, Up 33% Since 2020 (Forbes)
4. After winning The Eddie, Luke Shepardson goes back to work (KHON)
5. ‘The best-kept secret in the State Department.’ How sports help U.S. diplomats (LA Times)
6. Stade de Reims’ Will Still Unbeaten in 12 Matches After Getting Start in Video Game (Bleacher Report)
7. ‘He’s Black royalty’: Doug Williams’ Super Bowl legacy lives on (ESPN)
8. MLB season tickets, Netflix style? How teams, startups are reimagining ticket buying (The Athletic)
9. A college gymnastics star and her brother — who went viral for dancing at her meet — are helping to transform the sport by highlighting Black culture in her routines (INSIDER)
10. The world needs more women coaches, says Olympic medallist and canoe coach Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi (Olympics)


10+
West Coast Conference To Celebrate Bill Russell Recognition Week (WCC Sports)
https://wccsports.com/news/2023/1/23/general-west-coast-conference-honored-to-celebrate-bill-russell.aspx
Introducing FundPlay Foundation—An Expansion of LeagueApps’ Sports Based Youth Development Impact Program (LeagueApps)
https://leagueapps.com/blog/fundplay-foundation-for-sports-based-youth-development/
I Want to Talk to You About My Mom (by Jessica Pegula) (The Players Tribune)
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/jessica-pegula-tennis
Laureus Sport for Good proving it can drive positive change for London’s homeless children (Laureus)
https://www.laureus.com/news/laureus-sport-for-good-proving-it-can-drive-positive-change
Return to Play Fund – Resources (Beyond Sport)
https://www.beyondsport.org/articles/rtpf-resources/
Women in Football Be Inspired Conference 2023 (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/en/event/women-football-be-inspired-conference-2023


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!

Damar Hamlin expresses gratitude in first public comments (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=35547657
Ben Sanders (South Africa) – Why should we be cautious of evangelizing Sport for Development?
(Inspira | Erika Mueller Chen)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/5-ben-sanders-south-africa-why-should-we-be-cautious/id1660838106?i=1000592148977
How Jalen Hurts brought business boom to FoodChasers’ Kitchen (CBS News)
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/jalen-hurts-foodchasers-kitchen-elkins-park-cheesesteaks/


Introduction
I am leading off with an announcement about a major event taking place in a few months. The 10th anniversary of the Project Play Summit will be taking place May 17-18 in Colorado Springs.

In 2013, Project Play was launched as the nation’s first cross-sector, collective
impact effort to build healthy communities through sports. Today, it’s a movement of
thousands of organizations across the U.S. and beyond – sharing knowledge and
developing actions aligned with our strategic frameworks. Join us for our biggest event
yet as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Project Play and, together, chart next
steps in helping sport develop the human potential of every child.
https://www.aspenprojectplay.org/summit/2023

One topic that will surely be mentioned, multiple times, is coaching, and the incredible value that coaches bring to sports and society. January was National Mentoring Month, and many of us point to the coaches we have had in our lives as mentors. Maybe as kids we did not truly understand the idea of mentorship, but as adults, the concept takes on added importance as many of us become parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, colleagues, and coaches ourselves.

Three of the stories this week deal directly with coaches, including one that took us back to some of the best movies and shows from our youth, and today. (“The 25 best fictional coaches.”) That list is perfect for the endless debate of who was the best coach of that esteemed group (Buttermaker!) Whomever you pick, I guarantee just thinking of that character made you smile. (A fourth story mentions coaching in the context of sports and diplomacy.)

When we think of some of the seemingly intractable problems in society, especially those plaguing youth, the call for “more people who care,” is not unusual. Well, many people who care are current coaches, and many others who think about joining that group. There are many groups who have tapped into this growing population, e.g., Up2Us Sports, to help educate them and others on how coaches can be that non-parent or teacher who people will look back on as the one who changed their life. I hope the stories this week and, in the future, reinforce the idea of the impactful coach and encourage us to foster their development.

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.

Marcus Rashford and the goal celebration that is transcending football (The Athletic)
https://theathletic.com/4132027/2023/01/29/marcus-rashford-celebration/

The 25 best fictional coaches (YardBarker)
https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_25_best_fictional_coaches/s1__28380761#slide_1

Tennis Participation Surges For Third Year In A Row, Up 33% Since 2020 (Forbes)
https://www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2023/01/13/tennis-participation-surges-for-third-year-in-row-up-33-since-2020/amp/

After winning The Eddie, Luke Shepardson goes back to work (KHON)
https://www.khon2.com/the-eddie/after-winning-the-eddie-luke-shepardson-goes-back-to-work/

‘The best-kept secret in the State Department.’ How sports help U.S. diplomats (LA Times)
https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2023-01-29/sports-diplomacy-state-department

Stade de Reims’ Will Still Unbeaten in 12 Matches After Getting Start in Video Game (Bleacher Report)
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10063532-stade-de-reims-will-still-unbeaten-in-12-matches-after-getting-start-in-video-game

‘He’s Black royalty’: Doug Williams’ Super Bowl legacy lives on (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35540138/doug-williams-black-qb-legacy-1988-super-bowl-lives-on

MLB season tickets, Netflix style? How teams, startups are reimagining ticket buying (The Athletic)
https://theathletic.com/4148300/2023/02/02/mlb-season-tickets-netflix/

A college gymnastics star and her brother — who went viral for dancing at her meet — are helping to transform the sport by highlighting Black culture in her routines (INSIDER)
https://www.insider.com/derrian-gobourne-brother-viral-dancing-video-auburn-gymnastics-family-music-2023-1

The world needs more women coaches, says Olympic medallist and canoe coach Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi (Olympics)
https://olympics.com/ioc/news/the-world-needs-more-women-coaches-says-olympic-medallist-and-canoe-coach-myriam-fox-jerusalmi


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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.

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