Feb. 23 – March 8, 2025
Welcome to issue four hundred and sixty of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Faster, smarter, unprecedented: Inside the new $34M women’s basketball league, Unrivaled (Salon)
2. How keeping things real powers E.ON’s sport for good strategy (SportsPro)
3. Untold stories of Mike McDaniel the football player (ESPN)
4. Bayern Munich at 125: The past, the present and the future of a German powerhouse (The Athletic)
5. Shakhtar Stalevi: The ‘made of steel’ soccer team in Ukraine (ESPN)
6. From ‘scrawny’ teenager to the ‘ultimate competitor,’ Yared Nuguse has had a wild, unexpected journey to the top of running (CNN)
7. U.S. superstar Ilona Maher and her impact in England: ‘She wants to lift the whole sport with her’ (New York Times)
8. Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin to aid cancer research with each goal (ESPN)
9. ‘It’s just the beginning’: Victoria Azarenka hails ‘life-changing’ first maternity fund for professional tennis players (CNN)
10. Afghanistan women’s football team sends plea to FIFA for recognition ahead of AFC Women’s Asian Cup (ABC Australia)


10+
Harlem Lacrosse-Los Angeles: Helping Students ‘Aim High’ Through Education & Lacrosse (Beyond Sport)
https://beyondsport.org/2025/02/28/harlem-lacrosse-los-angeles-helping-students-aim-high-through-education-lacrosse/
USSC Launches New Campaign Celebrating Girls in Sport with Olympic Champion (Up2Us Sports/Athletic Business)
https://www.athleticbusiness.com/industry-press-room/press-release/15736611/ussc-launches-new-campaign-celebrating-girls-in-sport-with-olympic-champion
Sustainability in Football Report (World Football Summit)
https://worldfootballsummit.com/football-industry-reports/sustainability-football-report/
THANK YOU, SAN FRANCISCO (by Deebo Samuel) (The Players’ Tribune)
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/deebo-samuel-san-francisco-49ers-nfl-football
International Women’s Day: 8 sporting stories for #IWD2025 (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/international-womens-day-8-sporting-stories-iwd2025


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!

Wizards Fan discusses his Make-A-Wish 10 years later (Fox 5)
https://www.fox5dc.com/video/1592056
A Look Inside the Harry Benson Gallery with Ted Leonsis (ABC 7 News)
https://youtu.be/tEhKRaBySns?si=k5taXdzTMC8MLtzH
Official Trailer: Winner’s Circle | Inside the 2024 National Horse Players Championship (Duality Sports and Entertainment)
https://youtu.be/Yf5fmBrIYhE?si=wITmQ2OWid9dwqVB


Introduction
Something that I have highlighted multiple times over the years at Sports Doing Good is the lifelong relationship individuals have with sports, whether as players and/or as fans. The word relationship matters here because in both instances, the individual is making a commitment to the game, sharing both physical and emotional (and of course, financial) efforts in furtherance of that relationship. As I have been fortunate to discuss with students over the years, that relationship means a lot, and needs to be respected by the powers that be in the world of sports. Sometimes that doesn’t always happen. However, we have two stories this week in which that support to athletes is making a big positive difference.

In “Shakhtar Stalevi: The ‘made of steel’ soccer team in Ukraine,” from ESPN, and “‘It’s just the beginning’: Victoria Azarenka hails ‘life-changing’ first maternity fund for professional tennis players,” from CNN, these amateur and professional athletes are both acknowledging efforts that extend the time, and quality, of their athletic lives. In “Shakhtar” we have sport not only as a diversion, but as an essential element of one’s existence, of what it means to be alive. The team atmosphere continues the relationship that these Ukrainian fighters have with their brethren as they fight the invasion by Russia. Standing up for one’s individual and national sovereignty is the ultimate battle, and these individuals have done it and continue to do it. But they have articulated that they something else to give them hope, to give them joy. The sport of football has always done it for them, as athletes and fans. Amputee football was something I imagined not being possible. I am glad I was wrong.

In the story from CNN about women’s professional tennis, we see another type of effort that helps round out one’s experience as a professional player and as a mother. The great attention that we have seen put towards women’s sports in the past few years should not just focus on the athletic, but also the personal, which has an impact on the athletic. As Allyson Felix has shown us in the Summer Olympics, and Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka in tennis, and the growing number of “mom ballers” in the WNBA, one’s career does not have to end when embarking on the amazing journey that is motherhood. These world-class athletes have high level concerns, like all other moms. As the CNN article highlights, we are seeing concrete efforts supporting these athletes and their families, and extending the length of their careers, which is great for them and certainly great for us as fans. I look forward to further efforts across all sports that will keep this momentum going.

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.

Faster, smarter, unprecedented: Inside the new $34M women’s basketball league, Unrivaled (Salon)
https://www.salon.com/2025/02/19/faster-smarter-unprecedented-inside-the-new-34m-womens-basketball-league-unrivaled/

How keeping things real powers E.ON’s sport for good strategy (SportsPro)
https://www.sportspro.com/insights/analysis/e-on-sport-for-good-nottingham-forest-veloce-racing-impact-week-2025/

Untold stories of Mike McDaniel the football player (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/43907430/miami-dolphins-mike-mcdaniel-early-days-yale

Bayern Munich at 125: The past, the present and the future of a German powerhouse (The Athletic)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6160973/2025/02/27/bayern-munich-125-anniversary-kane-muller-us/

Shakhtar Stalevi: The ‘made of steel’ soccer team in Ukraine (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/43918071/shakhtar-stalevi-donetsk-ukraine-war-sc-featured-men-steel

From ‘scrawny’ teenager to the ‘ultimate competitor,’ Yared Nuguse has had a wild, unexpected journey to the top of running (CNN)
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/05/sport/yared-nuguse-running-spt-intl/index.html

U.S. superstar Ilona Maher and her impact in England: ‘She wants to lift the whole sport with her’ (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6166710/2025/03/03/ilona-maher-rugby-play-offs-england/

Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin to aid cancer research with each goal (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/44111720/capitals-alex-ovechkin-aid-cancer-research-goal

‘It’s just the beginning’: Victoria Azarenka hails ‘life-changing’ first maternity fund for professional tennis players (CNN)
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/06/sport/victoria-azarenka-maternity-fund-wta-tennis-spt/index.html

Afghanistan women’s football team sends plea to FIFA for recognition ahead of AFC Women’s Asian Cup (ABC Australia)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-28/afghanistan-womens-national-football-team-call-on-fifa/104989290


Quick Links…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our Website

More About Us
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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sarbjit “Sab” Singh
sab@sportsdoinggood.com
516-287-7141
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Forward this email