March 26 – April 8, 2023
Welcome to issue four hundred and eleven of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Angel City FC’s Madison Hammond is Black, Native and using her spotlight in the NWSL (Andscape)
2. How the Islanders & 43 Oak Are Making Hockey Dreams a Reality for Disadvantaged Kids (Bleacher Report)
3. ‘Dad, can I box?’: How a wish as a kid became Seniesa Estrada’s life — and saved her father’s (ESPN)
4. Angel City FC’s Alyssa Thompson Set a New Standard for Girls in Soccer (SI)
5. Women’s college basketball 20 for 20: Paige Bueckers, Niele Ivey and a big-time donor (The Athletic)
6. Ally’s Andrea Brimmer on Taking a Stand for Women’s Sports (Muse by Clio)
7. Thompson brothers making their mark on pro lacrosse fields (TSN)
8. For Kris Letang, reaching 1,000 games is a symbol of an extraordinary, difficult journey (The Athletic)
9. The Monarch Collective unveils $100 million fund to bring equity to women’s sports (Fast Company)
10. How a Samoan dynasty became the greatest wrestling family of all time (ESPN)


10+
Four teams, four matches one sustainability message (The Sustainability Report)
https://sustainabilityreport.com/2023/03/23/four-teams-four-matches-one-sustainability-message/
Using Sport to promote reform on physical, mental health and climate change (The Commonwealth)
https://thecommonwealth.org/news/blog-using-sport-promote-reform-physical-mental-health-and-climate-change
USOPC’s Rocky Harris: Let’s “rethink” sport in America (Aspen/Project Play)
https://www.aspenprojectplay.org/news/rocky-harris-usopc
Seattle, Forever (by Julio Rodriguez) (The Players’ Tribune)
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/julio-rodriguez-mlb-baseball-seattle-mariners
New Research Reveals Increased Need for Unstructured Play (Beyond Sport)
https://www.beyondsport.org/articles/new-research-reveals-why-children-need-play-for-improved-mental-health/


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!

Foolin’ with Frazier: Remembering Clyde’s famous April Fools’ prank (The Athletic)
https://theathletic.com/4368220/2023/03/31/clyde-frazier-knicks-april-fools/
Understanding The Sports Fan – The Ultimate Customer (Part 1)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/23v9IgYuzFl46RKXBBZIqu
Girl power: The rise in girls’ wrestling (CBS Sunday Morning/Favorito)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-rise-in-girls-wrestling/


Introduction

I want to start off with a job posting for a great position with a great team.

Program Specialist, Department of State
https://www.usajobs.gov/job/716784900
This position is located in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Office of Citizen Exchanges, Sports Diplomacy Division (ECA/PE/C/SD) Department of State (DOS). The position is responsible for conceiving, developing and directing a range of international sports exchanges designed to advance priority U.S. interests and promote long-lasting ties between the U.S. and other countries through people-to-people exchanges.

This week is another wonderful collection of articles for Sports Doing Good. I know it is something that Eli Wolff would have liked. Outside my family, there is no one I was more encouraged by and motivated by to do the newsletter than Eli Wolff. I got the tragic news that Eli passed away this week at age 45. I won’t dedicate this issue to Eli because all 411 issues are in his honor. I don’t know if I am doing the newsletter if it weren’t for him.

Eli was 7 years my junior, but he was my mentor, someone I looked to for guidance, insights, and motivation. I met Eli about 20 years ago when he was at Northeastern University with Dr. Lapchick. I remember saying to him that I thought he would be much older. His name kept coming up when I came across discussion about sport for social change and development. Someone that prolific and ever-present had to be older than in his 20s. Well, he wasn’t and that just added to the admiration I had for him.

Anytime Eli wrote something, often with his great partner, Dr. Mary Hums, he would ask if it could be in the newsletter. My answer was always yes. I almost did not need to read the piece because I just knew it was going to be relevant and of high quality. I don’t have the newsletters indexed by author, but it is safe to say that Eli and Mary have appeared more than anyone in Sports Doing Good.

It is hard to type through tears, so I am going to wrap it up here. Please see the posting by our friends at Sport and Dev of a statement from Eli’s family, which highlights his many accomplishments. And those accomplishments are why I loved Eli, because he would say they were not his accomplishments, they were accomplishments for everyone, especially those fighting for equal rights and access in and out of the world of sports.

The sport and human rights community mourns the loss of a true champion | sportanddev

I am heartbroken by the loss of a friend and colleague. I hope all of us find our own ways to make the world a better place, just like Eli did.

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.

Angel City FC’s Madison Hammond is Black, Native and using her spotlight in the NWSL (Andscape)
https://andscape.com/features/angel-city-fcs-madison-hammond-is-black-native-and-using-her-spotlight-in-the-nwsl/

How the Islanders & 43 Oak Are Making Hockey Dreams a Reality for Disadvantaged Kids (Bleacher Report)
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10070449-how-the-islanders-43-oak-are-making-hockey-dreams-a-reality-for-disadvantaged-kids

‘Dad, can I box?’: How a wish as a kid became Seniesa Estrada’s life — and saved her father’s (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/35919957/dad-box-how-wish-kid-became-seniesa-estrada-life-saved-fathers

Angel City FC’s Alyssa Thompson Set a New Standard for Girls in Soccer (SI)
https://www.si.com/soccer/2023/03/22/alyssa-thompson-nwsl-angel-city-fc-daily-cover

Women’s college basketball 20 for 20: Paige Bueckers, Niele Ivey and a big-time donor (The Athletic)
https://theathletic.com/4178216/2023/02/15/womens-college-basketball-future/

Ally’s Andrea Brimmer on Taking a Stand for Women’s Sports (Muse by Clio)
https://musebycl.io/brand/allys-andrea-brimmer-taking-stand-womens-sports

Thompson brothers making their mark on pro lacrosse fields (TSN)
https://www.tsn.ca/lacrosse/nll/thompson-brothers-making-their-mark-on-pro-lacrosse-fields-1.1932347

For Kris Letang, reaching 1,000 games is a symbol of an extraordinary, difficult journey (The Athletic)
https://theathletic.com/4360605/2023/04/02/penguins-kris-letang-1000-games/

The Monarch Collective unveils $100 million fund to bring equity to women’s sports (Fast Company)
https://www.fastcompany.com/90871005/monarch-collective-100-million-fund-equity-womens-sports

How a Samoan dynasty became the greatest wrestling family of all time (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/35996469/wwe-wrestlemania-39-how-samoan-dynasty-became-greatest-wrestling-family-all-roman-reigns-vs-cody-rhodes

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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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