Sport Doing Good
by Ken Reed
It’s fun to step back every now and then from the ego-and greed-infused aspects of sports and look at a story of “sport doing good.”
I came across one of those stories last night …
Carter Gates is a 9-year-old Colorado Springs resident who loves basketball. Unfortunately, he’s also battling leukemia and faces a couple more years of chemotherapy treatments.
Carter’s a big fan of the local Colorado College men’s basketball team. Thanks to a great organization called Team IMPACT (www.goteamimpact.org), and the efforts of a lot of other good-hearted people, Carter recently signed a “national letter of intent” to play basketball for the Colorado College Tigers. (See “Tiger Basketball Team … http://bit.ly/1zcPXen)
The Tigers started out as part of Carter’s support team but also have become fast friends with the young hoopster.
“He’s an awesome kid,” said James Lonergan, a forward for Colorado College. “He’s a big basketball fan. His sense of excitement is through the roof. It’s fun just hanging out with him; just being friends. There’s a light-hearted feel about him; he’s happy-go-lucky.”
The Tigers are definitely making a positive impact in the life of Carter Gates but Carter Gates is also positively impacting the lives of the young men on Colorado College’s basketball team.
“Sometimes you get to practice and you’re tired,” said Lonergan. “But what you are doing is his dream. You know you’re lucky to be there; to be playing basketball. It makes you play as hard as you can. He’s a great teammate.”
Carter recently suited up as Colorado College’s “sixth man” and scored a basket.
This poignant story has soul.
It was captured beautifully by NBC Nightly News in a short segment last night. Take a few minutes of your time to watch a college basketball team making a difference in a way much more impactful than a victory on the scoreboard. (See “College Sports Team … http://nbcnews.to/1sN22p6)
–Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world, with over 150 camps in 30+ U.S. states and Canada. We discuss problems in youth sports today, including single sport specialization, the growing gap between the “haves” and “have-nots,” the high drop-out rate in competitive sports, and the growing mental health challenges young athletes are dealing with today.
Listen on Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Anchor and others.
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More Episodes on Apple Podcasts; Spotify; Google Podcasts; PocketCasts; & Anchor
Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Episode #24 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Mental Health and Athletes: Ending the Stigma – Nathan Braaten and Taylor Ricci are the founders of Dam Worth It, a non-profit created to end the stigma around mental health at colleges and universities through sport, storytelling, and community creation.
Episode #23 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Olympian Benita Fitzgerald Mosley Talks Title IX, Youth Sports and the Olympics.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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