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Club Pink Parents - we played a nice game yesterday and our ground ball work
at practice definitely paid off! We also had some nice ball movement in
transition and on offense. While we still have lots to work on, it's nice to
see our hard working paying off! Again I will mention the importance of
picking up the stick and cradling, playing catch or wall ball during the
week. The extra work outside of practice is what makes great players great!


Special thanks to Hannah and Mary Kate for stepping up and playing goalie.
It was very shrewd of them to choose this game as we did not take on many
shots!! Keep in mind that we will need additional volunteers as the season
progresses.


Our practice is at 5:30 tonite. I hope everyone (including me!) can arrive a
few minutes early so we can begin promptly at 5:30. Bring lots of water and
the reversible pinnies.


Also, I am working to set up a scrimmage next Monday evening at Holy Cross
during our regular practice time. A friend coaches at Fort Hunt, wants to
scrimmage, and seems willing to make the drive over. I will let you know if
it comes together.


I know our jersey sizes came in a little smaller than expected. They will
stretch a little as they get worn. But if you feel your daughter simply
cannot wear it, please let me know today or tomorrow and I will see what I
can do about getting a larger size.


Lastly, below is an article sent to me by a friend that describes the
purpose of sport. While Club Pink is fortunate to have only well
intentioned and well behaved parents on our sidelines, this article is a
kind reminder of why we involve ourselves with sports. I hope you enjoy
reading it.


See you tonight. Brad


<http://sportsleaderusa.blogspot.com/2010/04/purpose-of-sport.html> The
Purpose of Sport


By Randy Traeger


<http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_p3EziLNEHdc/S7yIA1G5HgI/AAAAAAAAAIk/0z6AW2KR_ys/s
1600/Randy2.jpg> cid:[email protected]

Head Football Coach, Oregon

In this era when the post modern relative media bombards today's youth with
iniquitous images and sounds, sports stand out as an important counteractive
tool to teach virtue. Our kids are feeding their minds out of the media's
garbage can of content. No wonder so many of them are sick. Due to the
"charismatic" nature of sports, coaches (more than teachers, and even
parents) have the undivided attention of their players. Having this
attention places a great responsibility on the coach to use it for some
greater good. Lets use it to teach our players how to be virtuous. In many
ways sports should be considered the most important tool in our modern
society for teaching virtue to our youth.

It's time to redefine the purpose of sport.

Visit any youth sporting event and you will typically find numerous examples
of all the wrong reasons why players, coaches, and parents participate in
sports. Players throwing temper tantrums, coaches belittling players,
parents screaming at umpires for making the wrong call. In the last few
years, irate parents and fans have even taken to physically assaulting
coaches and referees. In the 8 to 13 year old age group, 70% of kids drop
out of organized sports after the first year. That's a high number, so
something is definitely wrong. A lot of time it's misguided player
expectations, abusive coaching practices, or excess pressure placed on the
player by the parents."

There has arisen an epidemic of participating in sports for "all the wrong
reasons".

Players: participating because their parents are forcing them to play, to
become more popular, to be a champion, to become a pro athlete, to get a
college scholarship, to win at all costs, to get a girlfriend or boyfriend,
or because today's modern media tells them that in order to be a man they
must be athletic.

Coaches: coaching for the money, coaching to stroke their own ego's,
coaching to satisfy some repressed frustration for failing to fulfill their
own athletic career, coaching their own son or daughter so they can live
vicariously through them, coaching their own son or daughter in order to
push them towards a college scholarship or other recognition.

Parents: having their son or daughter participate because it is a cheap
babysitting option, encouraging participation so they can live vicariously
through their son or daughter, fulfillment of some dream of a college
scholarship, recognition, or a professional career, to keep up with the
"Joneses", or so my son/daughter will be more popular.

These reasons are all misguided and usually lead to painful consequences.

It's time to value virtue for what it really is - STRENGTH.

The purpose of sport should be to teach our youth virtue. This purpose
needs to be made primary and not some secondary consequence or byproduct.
Most coaches will tell you right away about all the side benefits of sports.
But, why are these spiritual lessons always talked about like the second
rate stepchild? Why can't the life lessons learned in sports be the primary
objective? Let's reverse the roles and make things like "having fun" and
"staying in shape" the secondary byproducts of sports, with teaching virtue
as our main objective.

The new prioritized purpose of sport:

*To use all youth sports activities primarily as a context to teach virtue:
*To teach our youth about virtuous concepts such as humility, faith, hope,
love, courage, discipline, leadership, work ethic, empathy, thankfulness,
and more.
*To teach our youth that just like training is essential for competition, so
is doing schoolwork necessary to acquire knowledge needed in their future
work or professional duties.
*To teach our youth about the need to surpass known physical capacities in
order to obtain victory, as a life lesson about total devotion to the task
undertaken.
*To teach our youth about continuing to compete when exhausted, as a life
lesson about not getting discouraged in the pursuit of objectives in every
day life.
*To teach our youth the importance of sacrificing personal interest for that
of the team.
*To teach our youth about uniting wills for a common purpose which forms the
attitude of solidarity, so badly needed in today's individualistic, self
centered life of consumerism.
*To teach our youth through friendly competition, a more brotherly vision in
life as we exchange differing ideas with fellow man.

Finally, that our youth come to understand that lessons learned about virtue
are the most important motivation in athletic contests, with victory only a
by-product that should not create foolish pride, and defeat a reality of
life that should not breed discouragement. We need to teach our kids in
sport that just like in life, victory and defeat are both "impostors" and
that reality lies somewhere between both.

While there are a number of physical, psychological, and social benefits
that can be gained from youth sports participation, using sports to teach
virtue will have the greatest redemptive impact on our society as a whole.
However, virtue learning benefits through youth sports will not be
guaranteed solely by agreement with the concept. Deliberate constructive
programs need to be put in place and utilized to teach virtue through
sports. Coaches, the responsibility to teach virtue through sport is too
great to leave up to chance. Don't the assistant coaches, players, and
parents in your program deserve the very best? Evidence indicates that the
relevance, depth and quality of a "virtue coaching program" is the key
factor in maximizing positive effects.

Which "virtue coaching" curriculum are you using in your program?

We are using Sports Leader.
God Bless.


Brad Kotz

Seneca Properties, Inc.

4929 Bethesda Ave., Suite 200

Bethesda, MD 20818


301-941-8000 main

240-482-1291 direct

301-807-7586 cell

301-941-8180 fax