04/05/2007

Group promotes character and sportsmanship

Workshops set for coaches, parents

BY DENNIS CHASE

dchase@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — There's more to winning than merely outscoring the opposition.

That's a philosophy Jack Taylor's been preaching for years.

Taylor, a former coach and administrator, believes strongly in character building and sportsmanship.

That's why three years ago he helped organize Beyond the Scoreboard — a group of area coaches, parents and volunteers whose mission is to foster those values that Taylor says are deteriorating in sports today.

"It's become cut throat,” Taylor said. "There's a win- at-all-cost mentality.

"We want to redefine winning. We believe deserving to win is a higher goal than winning itself — that there's more to it than just the scoreboard.”

Beyond the Scoreboard has been making inroads in the Petoskey area. Now, the group is reaching out to coaches, parents and athletes in the Grand Traverse area.

The group has scheduled workshops for parents and coaches on Saturday, April 14 (see graphic).

At the morning workshop, parents will share their ideas about what they want their children to get out of youth sports and learn how they can help. Parents will also gain insight into the training some area coaches are receiving to become "double-goal coaches” — coaches who want to win and also develop the character of their players.

The "double-goal coaches” philosophy will be the topic of conversation in the afternoon workshop. Presenters will talk about striving to win and preparing your team to play at its highest level while at the same time teaching life lessons (teamwork, dedication, bouncing back from mistakes, etc.).

Taylor believes character values need to be re-introduced because of the me-first attitude that seems to be permeating sports, especially at the professional level.

"It's all about points, all about the money, all about the play of the game,” he said.

"Yes, winning is still extremely important. If you (coach) lose every game, even if you have great character, you're not going to be around long. But there's still a right way to win.”

Taylor said the workshops will help give parents and coaches the tools that will make a difference and cultivate a culture of respect, discipline, fair play and accountability.

It's an effort that Jack Roberts, executive director of the Michigan High School Athletic Association, applauds.

"Sportsmanship is the most popular understanding of what Beyond the Scoreboard tries to convey,” he said. "It is what the person on the street will most easily recognize — playing by the rules, treating officials and opponents respectfully. But I think Beyond the Scoreboard tries to do even more than that. As its name implies, they would like to have all of us who are involved with sports to not look at the scoreboard first — that the scoreboard would be a by-product of doing a lot of little things right in regards to how we treat one another, how we treat officials and opponents, how we treat members of our team, how we treat the other coaches.”

Roberts said there are other groups around the state promoting the same principles but not as ambitiously as Beyond the Scoreboard.

Beyond the Scoreboard now annually recognizes athletes, coaches, parents, officials and youth sports leaders who adhere to these principles.

Roberts said it is similar to the Character of Champions program initiated by the NAIA.

"West Michigan's distribution center for the NAIA Champions of Character program is Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids,” Roberts said. "They have a working agreement now with the very large OK Conference in and around Grand Rapids — nearly 50 schools. I think this is going to explode as the NAIA and Cornerstone provide this Champions of Character program, which has components for coaches, parents and athletes, to local schools. It is much the way Jack Taylor is doing it on a smaller scale in Emmet County. I think the lid will soon be coming off. I think what Jack is pioneering in Emmet County is going to be seen in many more places around the state.”

Roberts said there is certainly a need.

"I favor so many different kind of programs, aimed at different levels, coming from different places as the only chance we have to drown out the me-first, highly-commercialized, highly-professionalized sport we see in our media,” he said. "It overwhelms what we're trying to do in school sports, education-based sports.”

And it's never too early to emphasize sportsmanship and fair play.

"The earlier we engage people in this kind of thinking the better,” Roberts said. "Community youth sports is not too early. Certainly junior high, middle school, is not too soon. That's what Jack is accomplishing.”