July 2 – July 15, 2023
Welcome to issue four hundred and eighteen of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Brazil’s Black Kit Is Soccer’s Latest Effort To Kick Back At Racism (First and Pen)
2. Maryland Is a Fitting Home for the Power 5’s Most Groundbreaking Leadership Structure (SI)
3. Nike’s approach to solving the biggest problem for girls in sports (CNBC)
4. From the Champs to the Draft, the World Has Taken Over the NBA (Front Office Sports)
5. Why Blue Jays’ cricket day has cultural resonance – and personal meaning (SportsNet)
6. After Midnight at the N.B.A. Draft, Dreams Still Come True (New York Times)
7. The Occupational Therapist Trying to Swim Her Way to the Olympics (WSJ)
8. World Surf League’s Rising Tides Program Builds Self-Confidence In Young Female Surfers (Forbes)
9. The Rise And Rise of Basketball in Africa: From Grassroots to Pros (The Elephant)
10. Belgium Was Out of Hurdlers. So a Shot-Putter Agreed to Run. (New York Times)


10+
These kids revamped their schoolyard. It could be a model to make cities healthier (NPR)
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/06/17/1182556371/schools-parks-healthy-cities-kids
Global Sport and SDGs Impact Report Policy Brief revealed (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/global-sport-and-sdgs-impact-report-policy-brief-revealed
Human rights should be essential to FIFA’s choice of World Cup 2030 host, poll shows (Amnesty)
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/06/global-human-rights-should-be-essential-to-fifas-choice-of-world-cup-2030-host-poll-shows/
The Wild World of Summer Youth Sports (The Reformed Sports Project)
https://reformedsportsproject.com/blog/f/the-wild-world-of-summer-youth-sports
Sport as propeller of new forms of co-governance (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/sport-propeller-new-forms-co-governance


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!

Dennis Kasumba’s quest to become the first Ugandan drafted into MLB (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=37947343
Sports as a Catalyst for Social Change | Arshi Yasin | TEDxNITKSurathkal (YouTube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbxxcbnWEfM


Introduction
I want to first highlight an important effort for me that has not been properly promoted, and that is my apparel line, Love Equals. You have seen the logo in the newsletter but without any real explanation.

Love Equals is a socially conscious apparel brand boasting a commitment to style and substance. I have featured a lot of entrepreneurial activity over the years in the newsletter. This falls into that category.

The Love Equals brand is looking to have an impact, both by having its shirts out in the public, championing the concepts of love, excellence, acceptance, etc., as well as by committing 10% of all sales to various sports-based non-profits.
Getting a new business off the ground is not easy but I am hoping you will help me jumpstart this effort by both buying shirts and letting people in your network know about Love Equals. In addition to selling individual shirts, I work with organizations, companies, leagues/teams, non-profits, etc., on bulk purchases of shirts. We will always come back to you with a competitive bid. Thank you.

The story that I want to highlight this week is the last one on the list. Many times in sports you hear players and coaches talk about “stepping up” when a teammate is injured or unavailable. It all sounds good but are they really asking a lot of each other? I mean, when an NBA player goes down, another NBA player can come off the bench. It is not like the team calls in a player from the local MLB team. So how about when a country’s two hurdlers are not available and they need someone to run the 100 meter hurdles? Well, lucky for them, their shot-putter “stepped up.” As stated in the article, “Jolien Boumkwo’s 100-meter hurdles debut was not a stunt. Her team needed the points, and she volunteered.” You can see her run here. https://twitter.com/i/status/1672621749379416068

We applaud Jolien for being that teammate who is always there for the team. While she finished last in the race – no surprise – she earned points for her country and gave them a chance to advance in the competition. Bravo Jolien.

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.

Brazil’s Black Kit Is Soccer’s Latest Effort To Kick Back At Racism (First and Pen)
https://firstandpen.com/brazil-mens-soccer-black-kits-kick-back-at-racism/

Maryland Is a Fitting Home for the Power 5’s Most Groundbreaking Leadership Structure (SI)
https://www.si.com/college/2023/06/20/maryland-power-5-black-leadership-structure-coaches

Nike’s approach to solving the biggest problem for girls in sports (CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/18/nikes-approach-to-solving-the-biggest-problem-for-girls-in-sports.html

From the Champs to the Draft, the World Has Taken Over the NBA (Front Office Sports)
https://frontofficesports.com/the-world-has-taken-over-the-nba-embiid-jokic-wembanyama/

Why Blue Jays’ cricket day has cultural resonance – and personal meaning (SportsNet)
https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/why-blue-jays-cricket-day-has-cultural-resonance-and-personal-meaning/

After Midnight at the N.B.A. Draft, Dreams Still Come True (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/23/sports/basketball/nba-draft-last-pick.html

The Occupational Therapist Trying to Swim Her Way to the Olympics (WSJ)
https://www.wsj.com/sports/olympics/swimming-rachel-bernhardt-98b7752d

World Surf League’s Rising Tides Program Builds Self-Confidence In Young Female Surfers (Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylrobinson/2023/06/24/world-surf-leagues-rising-tides-program-builds-self-confidence-in-young-female-surfers/?sh=603667501aec

The Rise And Rise of Basketball in Africa: From Grassroots to Pros (The Elephant)
https://www.theelephant.info/culture/2023/06/24/the-rise-and-rise-of-basketball-in-africa-from-grassroots-to-pros/

Belgium Was Out of Hurdlers. So a Shot-Putter Agreed to Run. (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/26/sports/olympics/belgium-hurdles-jolien-boumkwo.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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