Dec. 15 – Dec. 28, 2024
Welcome to issue four hundred and fifty-five of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Inside Army-Navy: A day in the life of students at the service academies (ESPN)
2. Meet Gen G(ive) – the stars redefining modern philanthropy (Financial Times)
3. NBA All-Star Domantas Sabonis, his legendary father Arvydas — and the enormous weight of legacy (ESPN)
4. From $245 million bust to Super Bowl contender again: the redemption arc of ‘Mr. Unlimited’ Russell Wilson (CNN)
5. Meet Roki Sasaki, MLB’s next free agent superstar (CNN)
6. Joao Lucas Reis da Silva, the first out gay active professional male tennis player, was just posting a selfie (The Athletic)
7. Keeping up with the Macugas, America’s next first family of the Winter Olympics (The Athletic)
8. From Beijing to ka-ching: Winnipeg Jets’ Kevin He makes history (The Winnipeg Sun)
9. From Caitlin Clark and Simone Biles to a new hockey league, women’s sports had a pivotal year (AP)
10. How NFL Legends and Military Heroes are Tackling New Careers (Front Office Sports)


10+
2024 Project Play Impact Report (Project Play/Aspen Institute)
https://projectplay.org/news/2024/12/19/2024-project-play-impact-report
Transforming lives through sport: One year on from the Global Refugee Forum 2023 (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/transforming-lives-through-sport-one-year-global-refugee-forum-2023
Teaming Up for a Sustainable Future: How Sports Can Bolster Climate Action (Columbia.edu)
https://sps.columbia.edu/news/teaming-sustainable-future-how-sports-can-bolster-climate-action
The Sport for Changemaking Agenda | Celebrating 2024 (Ashoka)
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sport-changemaking-agenda-celebrating-2024-9sm5c/
9Miles Project helps Laureus Challengers make every step matter (Laureus)
https://www.laureus.com/news/9miles-project-helps-laureus-challengers-make-every-step-matter


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!

Ishan Sharma: The Canadian Basketball Sensation (Vivant) https://youtu.be/lEezqAMkm_0?si=TGpjb1t4h9ZMLVwM
Ep. #130 The Story Behind The Minnesota Aurora’s Innovative Community Ownership Model, ft. Andrea Yoch (The Business Case for Women’s Sports)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-130-the-story-behind-the-minnesota-auroras/id1550115073?i=1000681126692
Elevating Women’s Basketball: Innovating, Storytelling, and New Opportunities (Profluence Sports)
https://profluence.com/podcast/alex-bazzell-unrivaled/


Introduction
Working full-time requires a lot from all of us. There is the knowledge you have and that which you gain to be capable of doing the job. There is the effort needed to “get the job done” even when there are great obstacles in the way, or when we may not be at our best. Work runs the gamut from what seems like fun, e.g., being a professional athlete, to that which seems super-serious, e.g., serving in the military.

We have two stories that touch upon service; actually, the first story and the tenth story. The stories speak to two careers, the aforementioned professional sports and the military, that seem to require EVERYTHING from you to be great. Starting with training/practice and then manifesting itself in “live action,” it is no wonder that kids and adults alike look at these folks as heroes.

These careers are not undertaken in isolation. Teamwork is at the core of both efforts. However, after thousands of hours of training and work, there does come an end to those careers, and sometimes those relationships as well. This transition can be challenging for any person who naturally associates who they are and what they represent by what they have done in their career.

I have featured several times over the years stories about athletes finding the next chapter in their lives after sports. Some of this happens through the efforts of their pro leagues, who have begun to recognize that an athlete’s retirement should not be the end of their efforts to be the best at what they do, whatever that next chapter is. I would love to see all sports properties, especially the major leagues, give more thought to how their alumni will succeed in the future and possibly be a resource for that person. This is true for the military as well.

Please take a look at, “Inside Army-Navy: A day in the life of students at the service academies,” from ESPN; and “How NFL Legends and Military Heroes are Tackling New Careers,” from Front Office Sports.

And as we come upon the New Year, I hope that you find the successes you are looking for in every part of your life. As these articles make clear, teamwork is not a crutch, but rather the fuel you need to achieve your goals. Make it happen. Happy New Year.

Please continue to send along your stories. You are both our audience and the 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.

Inside Army-Navy: A day in the life of students at the service academies (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/42879498/inside-army-navy-day-life-students-service-academies

Meet Gen G(ive) – the stars redefining modern philanthropy (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/ccec815d-bd61-473b-ac92-072a8dfb95df

NBA All-Star Domantas Sabonis, his legendary father Arvydas — and the enormous weight of legacy (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/42911487/nba-all-star-domantas-sabonis-legendary-father-arvydas-enormous-weight-legacy

From $245 million bust to Super Bowl contender again: the redemption arc of ‘Mr. Unlimited’ Russell Wilson (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/14/sport/russell-wilson-pittsburgh-steelers-redemption-spt-intl/index.html

Meet Roki Sasaki, MLB’s next free agent superstar (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/16/sport/roki-sasaki-free-agent-spt-intl/index.html

Joao Lucas Reis da Silva, the first out gay active professional male tennis player, was just posting a selfie (The Athletic)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5995939/2024/12/16/joao-lucas-reis-da-silva-out-gay-male-professional-tennis-player/

Keeping up with the Macugas, America’s next first family of the Winter Olympics (The Athletic)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5973179/2024/12/17/lauren-macuga-alli-sam-olympics-skiing/

From Beijing to ka-ching: Winnipeg Jets’ Kevin He makes history (The Winnipeg Sun)
https://winnipegsun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/winnipeg-jets/from-beijing-to-ka-ching-winnipeg-jets-kevin-he-makes-history

From Caitlin Clark and Simone Biles to a new hockey league, women’s sports had a pivotal year (AP)
https://apnews.com/article/womens-sports-wnba-caitlin-clark-16c0b9500b45cf66ab4445b13d93e363

How NFL Legends and Military Heroes are Tackling New Careers (Front Office Sports)
https://frontofficesports.com/former-nfl-legends-military-heroes-tackling-new-careers/

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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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