June 15 – June 28, 2025
Welcome to issue four hundred and sixty-eight of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Kirsty Coventry shares her vision for athlete representation at the International Athletes’ Forum (IOC)
2. Road to Omaha: How the MCWS became a town’s pride and joy (ESPN)
3. A Purpose-Driven Partnership: How Community Is At The Center Of Cisco’s Newest Sports Endeavor (CISCO)
4. Washington Nationals’ ‘top paw-spect’ makes MLB debut… Bruce the Bat Dog (CNN)
5. World Oceans Day: How SailGP’s Impact League Is Pioneering Sport As A Force For Good (Conspiracy of Love)
6. Heart of Pearl: 11-year NBA veteran Scot Pollard and the emergency transplant that saved his life (ESPN)
7. Parenting and game plans: Inside Jenny Boucek’s extraordinary basketball journey to the Pacers (ESPN)
8. Amid the frustration at Oakmont, one golfer and his caddie wife are having the time of their lives (CNN)
9. Micheal Ray Richardson, formerly troubled NBA star, counting his blessings in Oklahoma (Andscape)
10. From Growth to Glory: New report sets India’s Olympic ambitions in motion (INSMA)


10+
Youth Sports Parent Checklists: Your Complete Guide to Building Athletes for Life from Project Play (YSBR)
https://youthsportsbusinessreport.com/youth-sports-parent-checklists-your-complete-guide-to-building-athletes-for-life-from-project-play/
Olympic Refuge Foundation Unveils Plans to Expand Support for Displaced Youth (Beyond Sport)
https://beyondsport.org/2025/06/17/olympic-refuge-foundation-unveils-plans-to-support-displaced-youth/
Judy Murray’s New ‘Learn to Lead’ Initiative Inspires Girls to Stay in Sport (Beyond Sport)
https://beyondsport.org/2025/06/17/judy-murrays-new-learn-to-lead-initiative-inspires-girls-to-stay-in-sport/
Decolonizing development: Reimagining sport for development financing and impact (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/decolonizing-development-reimagining-sport-development-financing-and-impact
Earned Not Given (by Lu Dort) (The Players’ Tribune)
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/lu-dort-nba-oklahoma-city-thunder-basketball


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!

Whoopi Goldberg puts spotlight on female athletes with the All-Women’s Sports Network (CBS News)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nhl/whoopi-goldberg-puts-spotlight-on-female-athletes-with-the-all-women-s-sports-network/vi-AA1GEUAI#details
445: Calvin Sibert on Using NBA Math Hoops to Transform Education Through Sports (The CUSP Show)
https://podcasts.apple.com/id/podcast/445-calvin-sibert-on-using-nba-math-hoops-to-transform/id1073489617?i=1000711690011
His Last Wish Created a Movement Through the Lacrosse World (Premier Lacrosse League)
https://youtu.be/5DEg7tOQjn8?si=_b0Q5L2CSkMj2wLYh


Introduction
There are some stories that are inherently part of the sports doing good universe. The broad subject of health/sickness/injury/recovery is a main one. In broader society, all of these things are present and sometimes the dominant issue in one’s life. Hopefully, we read more stories than not of good health and/or recovery. But of course, it does not always work out as we hope.

Organ or bone marrow donation are truly life-saving acts that we hear about when it happens between those who are related, and possibly even more when the individuals have no connection to each other. That is the ultimate gift, i.e., to do something that extends one’s life, the one chance we have on earth, with no prior connection to each other.

I have a couple of stories that are in that realm. First, a heart transplant in “Heart of Pearl: 11-year NBA veteran Scot Pollard and the emergency transplant that saved his life,” as well as the story of the late Nick Colleluori, in “His Last Wish Created a Movement Through the Lacrosse World.” The fact that there is one situation with survival and another with the unfortunate passing of a young person is simply the reality of how things happen that we may not have any control over. In both stories, though, there is legacy and impact. Scot Pollard is living a ew life with this family and friends, some of whom are the family members of the person who donated his heart to Scot. With Nick, though he did not survive his cancer, he worked hard when he could to build a legacy for young people and their families who would be fighting so hard, like his, to see him recover. His family, friends and fellow lacrosse players are carrying his torch.

Deciding to be an organ donor and/or blood marrow donor is a major decision, one that is hard to even fathom when it would entail the loss of our own life. But life is full of tough decisions that we make and can have repercussions for others near and far. In these two situations, we were dealing with individuals defined in part by their love of sports and the love of impacting others. Stories like these will always have a home at Sports Doing Good.

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.

Kirsty Coventry shares her vision for athlete representation at the International Athletes’ Forum (IOC)
https://www.olympics.com/athlete365/news/iaf/kirsty-coventry-shares-her-vision-for-athlete-representation-at-the-international-athletes-forum

Road to Omaha: How the MCWS became a town’s pride and joy (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/45493031/2025-men-college-world-series-ncaa-baseball-omaha-75-years

A Purpose-Driven Partnership: How Community Is At The Center Of Cisco’s Newest Sports Endeavor (CISCO)
https://blogs.cisco.com/industries/a-purpose-driven-partnership-how-community-is-at-the-center-of-ciscos-newest-sports-endeavor

Washington Nationals’ ‘top paw-spect’ makes MLB debut… Bruce the Bat Dog (CNN)
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/14/sport/bruce-the-bat-dog-mlb-debut-spt

World Oceans Day: How SailGP’s Impact League Is Pioneering Sport As A Force For Good (Conspiracy of Love)
https://www.conspiracyoflove.co/inspiration-articles/world-oceans-day-how-sailgps-impact-league-is-pioneering-sport-as-a-force-for-good

Heart of Pearl: 11-year NBA veteran Scot Pollard and the emergency transplant that saved his life (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45509753/heart-pearl-11-year-nba-veteran-scot-pollard-emergency-transplant-saved-life

Parenting and game plans: Inside Jenny Boucek’s extraordinary basketball journey to the Pacers (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45479818/jenny-boucek-extraordinary-basketball-journey-indiana-pacers

Amid the frustration at Oakmont, one golfer and his caddie wife are having the time of their lives (CNN)
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/14/sport/philip-barbaree-us-open-spt

Micheal Ray Richardson, formerly troubled NBA star, counting his blessings in Oklahoma (Andscape)
https://andscape.com/features/micheal-ray-richardson-formerly-troubled-nba-star-counting-his-blessings-in-oklahoma/

From Growth to Glory: New report sets India’s Olympic ambitions in motion (INSMA)
https://insma.in/2025/06/from-growth-to-glory-new-report-sets-indias-olympic-ambitions-in-motion/


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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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