UMaine Sports Reform Initiative Gets More National Attention
Contact: Kay Hyatt at (207) 581-2761
ORONO, Maine — Maine and the University of Maine’s Sports Done Right initiative are leaders in efforts to reform “a sports culture run amok,” according to today’s Parade magazine, carried in major Sunday newspaper around the country and reaching more than 75 million readers.
The lead story, “Who’s Killing Kids’ Sports?,” examines issues like excessive pressure, intense competition and unrealistic expectations — mostly generated by adults — that are taking the fun out of the game and causing 70 percent of America’s children to abandon organized sports by age 13.
While many communities are trying to change their approach to children’s sports, “no reform effort is more aggressive than that of the state of Maine, where educators, students-athletes and others have teamed up to launch a counterrevolution calls Sports Done Right,” Parade reports. Co-directed by former Maine Education Commissioner J. Duke Albanese and Robert Cobb, dean of UMaine’s College of Education and Human Development, and funded by a federal grant secured by U.S. Sen. Susan M. Collins, “the project aims to radically remake Maine’s youth sports culture and provide a model that the rest of America might emulate.”
The initiative, begun in October 2003, led to the creation and publication of Sports Done Right: A Call to Action on Behalf of Maine’s Student-Athletes, released in January of this year. Crafted by a statewide Select Panel, relying heavily on input from Maine student-athletes, the report defines healthy interscholastic sports based on core principles and practices, promotes competition without conflict, and makes recommendations for shaping the best possible learning environment for interscholastic and youth sports programs. Twelve Maine pilot sites representing 29 middle schools and high schools and 28 communities are in the process of implementing the Sports Done Right recommendations. In addition, school districts comprising another 160 Maine communities have begun using — or are considering — the model to steer local sports reform and improvement efforts.
The Parade story is the latest national recognition of Sports Done Right as a workable way for schools and communities to make interscholastic and youth sports a more positive experience. In addition to national media stories, school and sports leaders from more than 30 states have requested information or copies of the report.
“The national interest is an indication of the timeliness of the initiative and the thirst for a fresh approach to the youth sports experience, says Cobb. “The state of Maine and the University are appreciative of the opportunity to provide Sports Done Right as a resource to other states and communities nationwide as they attempt to bring youth sports into a healthy perspective.”
An article titled “Doing Sports Right” by Cobb and Albanese is featured in the current edition of the American School Board Journal. It will be available online September 1 at www.asbj.com. In April, National Public Radio ran a story about Sports Done Right, which followed a page 1 story published in January by Education Week.
In an Education Week follow-up as a new school year approaches, Karen Brown, director of the Maine Center for Sport and Coaching, will be the guest responding to questions submitted during an August 10 online discussion about sports issues and solutions. The Center oversees and guides the implementation of Sports Done Right.
Parade magazine runs in more than 340 Sunday newspapers, such as the Maine Sunday Telegram, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Education Week, with more than 217,000 readers, is the national, independent weekly newspaper of record on elementary and secondary education. The American School Board Journal, serving 40,000 readers, is a monthly publication for school board members and school administrators.
The Parade story was written by contributing editor David O. Relin who attended a May meeting of Sports Done Right pilot site leadership teams in Augusta, visited several pilot sites and interviewed Maine educators, coaches and students. It will be available online August 15.
More information about the UMaine Sports Done Right initiative is available on the web: www.sportsdonerightmaine.org.