Oct. 26 – Nov. 8, 2025
Welcome to issue four hundred and seventy-seven of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. How faith drives former NBA star Alonzo Mourning’s goodwill (Andscape)
2. Why everyone is talking about Bayern Munich’s Lennart Karl, 17 (ESPN)
3. The NBA is extending its relationship with one of the sporting world’s most intriguing start-up companies (CNN)
4. ‘A moment of glory’: How the daughter of two Ohio State ‘i dotters’ fulfilled her destiny (ESPN)
5. How Dereck Lively II’s Mindset and Mission Are Powering His Third NBA Season (Forbes)
6. From parrots to chemists, the world is captivated by baseball superstar Ohtani (AP)
7. Ted Leonsis of Monumental Sports & Entertainment: Taking the regional route to global growth (Financial Times)
8. With ‘a Billion’ Eyes on Them, India’s Women Lift Cricket World Cup (New York Times)
9. From burnout to brilliance: Amanda Anisimova on how honesty sparked her remarkable revival (The Guardian)
10. Failing might be the best thing we can do as kid athletes, and humans (USA Today)


10+
“Team Barbie” Uses Rugby to Build Girls’ Confidence (Beyond Sport)
https://beyondsport.org/2025/10/24/team-barbie-uses-rugby-to-build-girls-confidence/
WPBL Unveils First Four Teams (WPBL)
https://www.womensprobaseballleague.com/2025/10/21/four-cities-one-beginning/
Equal play effect: Five year report (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/equal-play-effect-five-year-report
Nine to Five (by Ausar Thompson) (The Players’ Tribune)
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/ausar-thompson-detroit-pistons-nba-basketball
Spanish football legend Thiago Alcântara becomes newest Laureus Ambassador (Laureus)
https://www.laureus.com/news/spanish-football-legend-thiago-alc-ntara-becomes-newest-laureus-ambassador


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!

He NEVER STARTED In High School But is Now BREAKING College Football… (Who is: Drew Mestemaker) (Embrace the Grind)
https://youtu.be/kYkAreCu78E?si=4INJIvxoJWqYNN2v
Blind Baseball (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/videos/title-2573151
Touchdown! The flag football movement is here (Ted.com)
https://www.ted.com/talks/troy_vincent_sr_touchdown_the_flag_football_movement_is_here
Steve Kerr and Kris Brown on Leadership, Purpose, and Innovation in Sport and Society (Possible)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-kerr-and-kris-brown-on-leadership-purpose/id1677184070?i=1000734014608
How Patrick Mahomes’ multi-sport background shaped his NFL career (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/46812800
Mount Mutombo (Trailer)
https://mountmutombofilm.com/


Introduction
Trusting ourselves in the face of failure is something that does not come easily for most of us. Instead, questions such as “Why did that happen?” or “How could I miss that shot?” or “What’s wrong with me?” crowd our brains. But just because those questions come up doesn’t mean they are the right ones to ask ourselves. Learning from failure, or just not being “perfect” is liberating, and ultimately is key to our successes, as hard as it may be to accept at the time.

Many of the articles featured in Sports Doing Good over the years have had to do with overcoming physical and mental obstacles, being better (not just winning), and trying to serve as role models for others, especially younger folks. The newsletter is not called “Winning Every Time” for a very good reason. That’s just not how life works.

I feature two articles this week that speak to the dynamic of “losing” and how we cope with that reality. The dynamic can be especially hard for our younger athletes, as not only are they dealing with winning and losing in sports, but they are also navigating life, which we all know, is not so easy.

An athlete that I learned about this year is pro tennis player Amanda Anisimova. She had a terrific year on the court but may have garnered more attention for her handling of a very difficult experience on maybe the biggest stage in her sport, the Wimbledon final on Centre Court. Her brave speech after the match was something I featured this summer. However, this second article, “From burnout to brilliance: Amanda Anisimova on how honesty sparked her remarkable revival,” in The Guardian, helped to better tell her story, and her response to a challenging situation.

The article that follows the Anisimova article has to do with the subject of failure, and its positive impact on our development as athletes and human beings “Failing might be the best thing we can do as kid athletes, and humans,” in USA Today, may be the most compelling title I have ever included. Taken together, these two articles had me rethinking my own approach to life’s small and big challenges. I hope you have a chance to read both, along with the other articles featured this week in 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.

How faith drives former NBA star Alonzo Mourning’s goodwill (Andscape)
https://andscape.com/features/alonzo-mourning-on-building-affordable-housing/

Why everyone is talking about Bayern Munich’s Lennart Karl, 17 (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/46742375/why-everyone-talking-bayern-munich-lennart-karl-17

The NBA is extending its relationship with one of the sporting world’s most intriguing start-up companies (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/30/sport/basketball-nba-sports-business-cosm

‘A moment of glory’: How the daughter of two Ohio State ‘i dotters’ fulfilled her destiny (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/46746622/ohio-state-marching-band-dotting-i

How Dereck Lively II’s Mindset and Mission Are Powering His Third NBA Season (Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brookchoulet/2025/10/29/how-dereck-lively-iis-mindset-and-mission-are-powering-his-third-nba-season/

From parrots to chemists, the world is captivated by baseball superstar Ohtani (AP)
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/from-parrots-to-chemists-the-world-is-captivated-by-baseball-superstar-ohtani/ar-AA1PwKP0

Ted Leonsis of Monumental Sports & Entertainment: Taking the regional route to global growth (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/fa82cbf8-4d36-4173-b4ee-ea70bcd190ce

With ‘a Billion’ Eyes on Them, India’s Women Lift Cricket World Cup (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/world/asia/india-women-cricket-world-cup.html

From burnout to brilliance: Amanda Anisimova on how honesty sparked her remarkable revival (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/nov/03/from-burnout-to-brilliance-amanda-anisimova-on-how-honesty-sparked-her-remarkable-revival

Failing might be the best thing we can do as kid athletes, and humans (USA Today)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2025/11/08/failing-youth-sports-anna-hall-aaron-dinin-tiktok-duke/87155916007/

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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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