Play Like A Champion

COMMENTS FROM 2008 PLC LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
COMMENTS FROM PLC PARTNERS
COMMENTS FROM WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS
ENDORSEMENTS

Comments from 2008 PLC Leadership Conference

“Thank you for everything. It was a wonderful experience!”

“The information was great – meaningful, pertinent, applicable and well-presented. I attend many conferences in my business life. When I go if I can take just one thing back, I consider it worth my time. This was better than any business conference I have ever attended. There are many aspects I can take back and apply to coaching and to life.”

“Simply outstanding. Extremely professional. All of you can be confident that you are making a difference in the world and proclaiming the word of God.

“This conference gave me great inspiration. This is a program many Catholics should be using to extend their spirituality as adults to pass onto others. Thank you for a great and informative weekend. I walked away feeling we can make a difference with our mission.”

“The material is top notch, the message is solid and grounded on facts. It is really something everyone should apply in everyday life. Thank you to the entire team for all of your hard work and sacrifice to ensure our experience is 100% first class.”

“Your staff is encouraging, helpful and informative: a very dynamic team and program.”

2008 PLC Leadership Conference Participant Evaluations:

100% of Participants would recommend the conference to colleagues.

100% agreed that the conference exceeded their expectations.

100% strongly agreed that the ND Special features – locker room visit, dinner in the Press Box of Notre Dame Football stadium, ND guest speakers and Mass – enhanced their experience.

Comments from PLC Partners

“Play Like A Champion was exactly the training program I was searching for. PLC (SAM) wastes no time sinking its teeth into the meat of Catholic Youth Sports. Coaches find it fast moving, thought provoking, and personally inspiring. Coaches are the experts when it comes to Sports. Helping them discover that the Catholic Church needs their gifts and talents in Sports Ministry was one of the most rewarding components of this program for me.”

Sue Versluys
Coordinator of Youth Ministry
Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, NY

“PLC is a fantastic program! It addresses all pertinent issues that impact the Archdiocese of Los Angeles; providing all kids with fair playing, putting kids first, and combating the win-at-all cost mentality so prevalent in youth sports. The program shows coaches how to win the right way all while considering the child’s development and emphasizing the enjoyment of participation. My coaches come out of training with a different perspective and a renewed passion for coaching youth sports. We are extremely satisfied with the SAM program and sincerely believe that it is making a difference in our diocese.”

Larry Muno
Program Director, Catholic Youth Organization
Archdiocese of Los Angeles, CA
“The (SAM) program emphasizes the importance of presenting sport as a form of youth ministry, and challenged us to view sports as a means of developing the whole person; physically, mentally, and spiritually. I was introduced to an exciting program that challenged the “win-at-all cost mentality” currently draining the fun and excitement from sports participation.”

Kim Hill
Diocese of Erie, PA

“The Play Like A Champion Today™ Sports as Ministry Initiative is an excellent way to make sure that our Catholic youth sports programs are helping young people become better disciples of Jesus. By training coaches, parents, and athletic board members, PLC Sports as Ministry assures that athletics is a ministry to young people that upholds the best values and teachings of our Catholic Church. Play Like A Champion Today™ is about doing Catholic sports right - a great reminder of what good sports can be.”

Most Rev. Roger W. Gries, O.S.B
Auxiliary Bishop of Cleveland, OH

Comments from Workshop Participants

"This is an excellent program and should be strongly recommended, if not mandatory, for all coaches and parents."

“This program reinforced ideas I had, but do not always use. This is necessary for our diocese because we need all coaches to be “on the same page.”
"Good stuff- Looking forward to making positive impact through my own actions/initiative."

“I realized that coaching is a ministry. I really never saw it that way until this training. It made me understand more what a strong influence I can have on kids. I want to be a role model for them both in regard to the skills they are learning and how they treat each other as people.”
“I already believe in these principles, but I needed a good tune-up. PLC provided this.”
“All the information was helpful. It gave me great ideas to implement this season. Also important was hearing ideas from other coaches, looking at problems from different points of view can yield better solutions.”

This well prepared and presented workshop gives me information on relating my ministry to sports.”

Getting to take the coacehes manual home is terrific. I can refer to it often and after more study, I will feel very confident coaching.”

When asked “Would you recommend this program to others,” workshop participants’ responses included:

“Yes! Children’s sports programs are becoming more and more a win-at-all costs mentality. This program puts the emphasis on sportsmanship.”

“I think PLC should be mandatory to ensure people in a coach’s position foster positive actions, behaviors and therefore experiences.”

“I’ve coached for 11 years and coached against coaches and players with terrible attitudes and character. This program is essential!”

Yes – it would make coaching more pleasant for all if most coaches would ascribe to these (PLC) principles.”

It is important to deliver a consistent message. We need all coaches to buy into these concepts.”

Endorsement from the Notre Dame Office of the President

Dear Participants and Friends of Play Like A Champion Today,

The Play Like A Champion Today “Sports as Ministry Initiative” is a concrete example of how Notre Dame, as a distinctively Catholic University, draws on its rich religious and athletic tradition as well it its intellectual resources to serve the Church and the wider human community. We at Notre Dame realize that we educate directly only a small fraction of the undergraduate and graduate student population. Yet we broaden our influence beyond our campus through outreach programs like Play Like A Champion Today.

The 2008 Pew sponsored “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey” and the “2005 Nation Study of Youth and Religion” led by Notre Dame professor Christian Smith point to a growing number of young people who no longer identify with the Church or see the relevance of their faith in their lives. The Sports as Ministry Initiative provides workshops to coaches that present coaching as a kind of ministry and offer research based, age-appropriate ways of teaching moral and spiritual values through the sports experience. The Sports as Ministry Initiative also provides workshops for parents that link sports parenting to parents’ catechetical responsibilities as their children’s primary educators.

As President of Notre Dame, I am especially proud of the collaboration among our faculty, coaches, athletic administrators that produced the Play Like A Champion Educational Series. This is a truly interdisciplinary endeavor and one that brings academic and athletics together in a special way.

Blessed Basil Moreau, the founder of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, laid out a vision of education focused on the whole person, mind, heart, and body. In simple terms, Blessed Moreau saw education as “helping young people to completeness.” Play Like A Champion today helps coaches, parents, and athletic leaders to keep this ideal of completeness before them in all they do with young people.

An important part of our mission at Notre Dame is bringing scholarship into service, and this is what Play Like A Champion Today is all about. As we look into the future, I hope that we can find ways to bring Play Like A Champion Today to dioceses and parishes in every corner of the country.

In Notre Dame,

Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C
President

Endorsement from Notre Dame Department of Athletics

The Play Like A Champion Today™ (PLC) Educational Series, consisting of programs for youth sport coaches and parents, embodies the ideals of the University of Notre Dame Department of Athletics. This includes the values of developing the human person/spirit as well as body through athletics, the pursuit of excellence in all endeavors, the nurturing of Christian character, and the call to personal integrity and responsibility. (from "Statement of Principles for Intercollegiate Athletics.")

The Notre Dame Department of Athletics supports Play Like A Champion Today™ programs for elementary and middle school age children across the country and plays a significant role in the programs' development and implementation. Developed in collaboration with Notre Dame coaches and athletic administrators, PLC incorporates Notre Dame's philosophies, approach to coaching, and best practices into its curriculum and workshops.

Youth sports programs nurture not only great athletes, but also the leaders of the future. For this reason, youth sport coaches must be prepared to foster excellence on and off the field. The Play Like A Champion Today™ programs help coaches and parents to make sports a positive and enriching experience for each and every child who wishes to participate.

As members of a university community, we are especially proud to be working with educators, psychologists, ethicists, and theologians which results in a program that maintains the highest aspirations of sports as an educational as well as physical activity.

Go Fighting Irish!

Kevin White
Director of Athletics