Sept. 24 – Oct. 7, 2023
Welcome to issue four hundred and twenty-four of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Racer, stunt driver, ambassador: Jessica Hawkins’ fight to deliver on her dreams (The Athletic)
2. Meet the youngest starting quarterback in college football, who throws like no one else (The Athletic)
3. Savannah Bananas Break All The Rules To Hit The Mainstream (Front Office Sports)
4. WNBA enters new chapter of front-office hiring (Andscape)
5. How Lionel Messi and soccer bring together a father and son (ESPN)
6. Quizzes on a treadmill: The long journey to US citizenship for Panthers’ Frankie Luvu (Charlotte Observer)
7. Pebble Beach Is Hosting Another Coveted Pro-Am This Week, With an Eye on Future Stars (SI)
8. Athletes seek ‘seat at table’ in new college sports model (ESPN)
9. Sports Keep Missing The Boat On the Fastest Growing Demo…Time To Start A Trend (Favorito)
10. America’s Major League Cricket Debut Surpassed Expectations On And Off The Field


10+
Creating Safe Spaces: Safeguarding practices in sport activities in the context of displacement (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/creating-safe-spaces-safeguarding-practices-sport-activities-context-displacement

BBC Green Sport Awards: Nominees announced for 2023 awards (BBC)
https://www.bbc.com/sport/66845485

Optimal Approaches to Sustainability in Stadiums and Arenas (CleanLink)
https://www.cleanlink.com/cleanlinkminute/details/Optimal-Approaches-to-Sustainability-in-Stadiums-and-Arenas–63723

MLS exec: Soccer system should work together to compete for best athletes, fans (Project Play)
https://projectplay.org/news/sola-winley-mls
Nominees of the Peace through Sport Initiative of the year (Peace and Sport)
https://middle-east-forum.peace-sport.org/en/content/nomines-des-peace-and-sport-awards-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!

On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss | James Threalkill (Vanderbilt Athletics)
https://youtu.be/JDKLX5sZ1ZU?feature=shared
NFL vets coach girls’ flag football (CBS News)
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/nfl-vets-coach-girls-flag-football/?ftag=CNM-00-10aac3a


Introduction
The Sports Doing Good newsletter is inclusive, by design. Not limited to a particular sport or region of the world nor a particular subject matter (other than sports, of course), I was always sure that good could be found everywhere, done by all, touching upon all of our lives. I am on a streak of 424 issues where I have been proven right.

But just because I have that approach to the newsletter, doesn’t mean others are equally as egalitarian when it comes to what they do and what they focus on. If you are above 50 years old, even 40 years, you are regularly ignored when it comes to discussions of strategies in the sports space to grow the industry. Everything is about “digital natives,” young people who never experienced the 20th century, let alone lived without advanced technologies. Many seem to be hyper-focused on that group. And you know what, they are not entirely wrong. Oh yes, they are wrong, but not entirely wrong. That young cohort is certainly worthy of major research and target marketing. Winning customers when they are young is often the recipe for success in securing lifetime fans, whether you are selling sports, soda, fast food, mobile products, auto, whatever. But it should not be ALL about them. Those who seem to know this are those not in those coveted age groups.

One of the articles we feature this week is an opinion piece from friend and colleague Joe Favorito. (“Sports Keep Missing the Boat on the Fastest Growing Demo…Time to Start a Trend”) Joe has the rare breadth and depth of knowledge and experience in the sports marketing and PR space and his article is a call to the sports and non-sports world to acknowledge the very vibrant 50+ year old group. You know them, the almost 150 million Americans who have their own jobs and money and driver’s licenses and regularly get together for reunions and other events to talk about past memories and to create new ones, often spending a little more than normal to enjoy those moments (often involving sports!!)

I won’t argue further for the 50+ crowd here because Joe does a great job of that in his article. Please take a read and if you are in that group, know that you are being seen by this newsletter. And if your kids want to know who Dave Chapelle is, as well as the Wu-Tang Clan, Michael Jordan, Brad Pitt, The Rock, Tom Brady, Salma Hayek, Daniel Craig, and The Cure, just tell them they are (Gen X) friends of yours.

Please continue to send along your stories. You’re both our audience and best source of stories. Our Twitter handle is @sportsdoinggood, and you can find us at www.facebook.com/sportsdoinggood and on Instagram.

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.

Racer, stunt driver, ambassador: Jessica Hawkins’ fight to deliver on her dreams (The Athletic)
https://theathletic.com/4886841/2023/09/22/jessica-hawkins-aston-martin-motorsports-stunt-driver/

Meet the youngest starting quarterback in college football, who throws like no one else (The Athletic)
https://theathletic.com/4884729/2023/09/21/chris-howell-liu-quarterback-throwing-motion/

Savannah Bananas Break All The Rules To Hit The Mainstream (Front Office Sports)
https://frontofficesports.com/savannah-bananas-break-all-the-rules-to-hit-the-mainstream/

WNBA enters new chapter of front-office hiring (Andscape)
https://andscape.com/features/wnba-enters-new-chapter-of-front-office-hiring/

How Lionel Messi and soccer bring together a father and son (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/38338420/how-lionel-messi-soccer-bring-together-father-son

Quizzes on a treadmill: The long journey to US citizenship for Panthers’ Frankie Luvu (Charlotte Observer)
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nfl/carolina-panthers/article279243674.html

Pebble Beach Is Hosting Another Coveted Pro-Am This Week, With an Eye on Future Stars (SI)
https://www.si.com/golf/news/pebble-beach-another-coveted-pro-am-future-stars-pga-tour-champions

Athletes seek ‘seat at table’ in new college sports model (ESPN)
https://www.espn.ph/college-sports/story/_/id/38496940/athletes-seek-greater-voice-college-sports-model

Sports Keep Missing The Boat On the Fastest Growing Demo…Time To Start A Trend (Favorito)
https://joefavorito.com/2023/09/24/sports-keep-missing-the-boat-on-the-fastest-growing-demo-time-to-start-a-trend/

America’s Major League Cricket Debut Surpassed Expectations On And Off The Field (Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tristanlavalette/2023/09/27/americas-major-league-cricket-debut-surpassed-expectations-on-and-off-the-field/?sh=402b1064274b


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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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