Is there an epidemic of Sportsmanship in Washington State?

First the Central Washington softball players carry an injured opponent around the bases for her home run, and now high school track runners switch medals at the State Championships to correct a percieved injustice.

Read the story here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/highschool/news/story?id=3411085

Is it contagious?

Is a new culture created one random act of sportsmanship at a time?

Positive Coaching Alliance thinks so...one coach...one parent...one kid...one organization at a time.

Cycle of Life

My oldest daughter just graduated from college and a speaker took the mike at the baccalaureate. She started her talk something like this.

"I started college in 1973 and after my freshman year decided to take a year off. It became 2...3...4...5. Then I got married and had a beautiful child. It became 2...3...4......5! The cycle of life kicked in, their education became more important than mine...."

... and her story went on. Ultimately she went back to school THIRTY YEARS later and said, "... the first day the students thought I was a teacher, the teachers thought I was a parent, and the parents thought...I was CRAZY!"

She ended up graduating magna cum laude with a double major and recieved the loudest ovation from her fellow graduates than any other student.

Now she gets to live her dream. It's never too late to go back, especially with todays degree completion programs and online education options
(Lord knows we ALL spend enough time online !:?)

Best of luck to all who choose this route

Rim Reducers

Does anybody have any *real* statistical evidence that rim reducers are effective? They claim,
"...trains you to be more accurate on all types of shots. Practicing on a 15" ring will significantly improve shooting accuracy when playing on a regulation 18" rim...."
Now I get the theory that once removed the rim "looks" larger, but I've got some hesitation about using them.

I want players to shoot with confidence and confidence comes from repeated success. I'm a little reluctant to use anything that limits a shooters success. I'd love to see a reverse study that uses larger rims in the offseason to see if it would increase a shooters confidence and build a "truer" release. I absolutely think that larger rims should be used at younger levels to increase the success rate and keep kids in the game until they have a chance to get good. Too many kids leave the game early because they can't make a dang basket.

I worked for a coach that has produced some great scorers and during the offseason he would loosen the rims as much as he could so the kids would get every bounce and would shoot a great %. By the time the season came around they knew that they were good shooters and, in many cases, it became a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Just thinkin' out loud...kind of !:?)

Program Pen-Pals

I think that if you have a close relationship with a college coach and was within reasonable proximity, taking your players to the college for a mentor/mentee experience amongst players of both teams would be a benefit to both groups of young men.

Also, as a high school coach, turn that around and create mentoring opportunities for *your players* in the community. I was thinking about this a while back watching the Tennessee/Indy game during a speaking trip in Toronto, Canada. I'm not sure if the commercial broadcasts were the same in the States, but they featured a high school football team in Florida that instituted a "pen-pal" program between it's players and players in the local youth football league.

Every week they would exchange letters about a bunch of topics. That is not only a great mentoring opportunity, community service, a chance to play "big-brother", and a big thrill for the younger kids, but also a great chance to build some continuity in the area and develop young kids that look forward to being in your program like their pen-pal.

"Carrying" Sportsmanship to the Extreme

This is not about basketball but absolutely a story worth posting anywhere.It might be the greatest act of respecting your opponents and Honoring the Game - whatever your game is.

The video tells it all...