May 7 – May 20, 2023
Welcome to issue four hundred and fourteen of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. West Ham goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold shares her hearing loss journey with the world (Optus Sports)
2. AZ Alkmaar use BrainsFirst test to identify best young talent and it has helped them win UEFA Youth League (Sky Sports)
3. The Giants’ Alioto has seen most everything in baseball. He’s not retiring, just seeking a new view. (Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal)
4. Pro sports unions unite to discuss importance of mental health (CNBC)
5. A Mexican soccer team, founded by the LGBTQ+ community, earns respect on and off the field (ESPN)
6. MLS aims to reach “every kid playing soccer in North America” with Ai.io scouting tech (SportsPro Media)
7. Can You Believe This Right Now? (by Lars Nootbaar) (The Players’ Tribune)
8. Beer showers, cowbells, Woo Pigs: Welcome to the wide world of SEC baseball (ESPN)
9. Why this team is driving people absolutely Bananas (Fast Company)
10. Retired NFL great JJ Watt is taking a page from Ryan Reynolds’ playbook by investing in English soccer-and it already looks like he’s loving it (Fortune)


10+
Local Heroes and Paralympic Superstars take centre stage ahead of Laureus Awards (Laureus)
https://www.laureus.com/news/local-heroes-and-paralympic-superstars-take-centre-stage-ahead-of-laureus-awards
“I Play For My Family and For My Team” (Homeless World Cup)
https://www.homelessworldcup.org/stories/i-play-for-my-family-and-my-team-tatianna-team-usa
Centre for Sport and Human Rights and ThinkSport Announce 2-Year Strategic Partnership (Centre for Sport and Human Rights)
https://www.sporthumanrights.org/news/centre-and-thinksport-announce-2-year-strategic-partnership/
Liverpool FC’s Trend Alexander-Arnold Supports Young Footballers Who Don’t Make It (Beyond Sport)
https://www.beyondsport.org/articles/liverpool-fcs-trent-alexander-arnold-supports-young-footballers-who-dont-make-it/
Role of sports in tackling climate change (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/role-sports-tackling-climate-change


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!

‘Row on Wisconsin’ (Wisconsin Badgers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZPi43twbtw
‘Sportingly +’ – Eric Moussambani … A Story of Determination, Courage and Excellence (Sportingly+)
https://youtu.be/4uMwYdya7Hk



Introduction
Last week The Aspen Institute held its 10th Project Play summit. By all accounts, it was a wildly successful event with dynamic panel discussions and presentations that addressed a host of issues regarding sports, especially youth sports, in America. For a recap, please click here.

A regular topic when it comes to youth sports is talent identification and development. Who gets to play in sport organizations that develop many of the athletes we see on the national and international levels, or even develop players who will get a chance to play in high school and/or college.

One of the stories featured this week, “MLS aims to reach “every kid playing soccer in North America” with Ai.io scouting tech,” touts a new technology being employed by Major League Soccer. According to the article, “Major League Soccer (MLS) has partnered with technology company Ai.io in a move the competition hopes will enable it to “identify and reach every kid playing soccer in North America”. The idea is that kids will be able to use an app to easily record themselves do a variety of drills and activities that can be easily viewed by talent evaluators.”

A question that has been asked for a long time across all sports, including with the men’s national soccer team is, “Are we missing something when it comes to finding the best players and fielding the best teams?” The structure of youth sports in soccer and other activities has created a “pay for play” system which excludes too many young players. Forget about fielding the national team, the country suffers when kids are being denied opportunities to play youth sports, especially team sports.

It seems we will forever debate the benefits and drawbacks of technology. Of course, it is not all one thing. However, when there are advances like this technology that can be used to do the most good for the most people, especially those from under-resourced areas, it seems that definitely falls into the category 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.

West Ham goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold shares her hearing loss journey with the world (Optus Sports)
https://sport.optus.com.au/news/womens/os56360/matildas-goalkeeper-mackenzie-arnold-shares-her-hearing-loss-hearing-aids-journey-with-fans

AZ Alkmaar use BrainsFirst test to identify best young talent and it has helped them win UEFA Youth League (Sky Sports)
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11096/12871411/az-alkmaar-use-brainsfirst-test-to-identify-best-young-talent-and-it-has-helped-them-win-uefa-youth-league

The Giants’ Alioto has seen most everything in baseball. He’s not retiring, just seeking a new view. (Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal)
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2023/05/08/Insiders/marketing-and-sponsorship.aspx

Pro sports unions unite to discuss importance of mental health (CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/01/pro-sports-unions-unite-to-discuss-importance-of-mental-health.html

A Mexican soccer team, founded by the LGBTQ+ community, earns respect on and off the field (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/soccer/mexico-mex/story/4933494/mexican-soccer-team-muxes-finds-strength-in-lgbtqia-roots

MLS aims to reach “every kid playing soccer in North America” with Ai.io scouting tech (SportsPro Media)
https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/mls-ai-io-scouting-programme-computer-vision-technology/

Can You Believe This Right Now? (by Lars Nootbaar) (The Players’ Tribune)
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/lars-nootbaar-st-louis-cardinals-mlb-japan-world-baseball-classic

Beer showers, cowbells, Woo Pigs: Welcome to the wide world of SEC baseball (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/36305192/college-football-crowds-baseball-games-sec-electric-atmospheres

Why this team is driving people absolutely Bananas (Fast Company)
https://www.fastcompany.com/90878589/the-savannah-bananas-baseball-circus

Retired NFL great JJ Watt is taking a page from Ryan Reynolds’ playbook by investing in English soccer-and it already looks like he’s loving it (Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2023/05/11/jj-watt-burnley-investment-talks-to-ryan-reynolds-wrexham-advice/

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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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