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Investing in the Growth of Coaches and Staff: The Key to Sustained Organizational Success
In the dynamic world of sports, the development of coaches and staff is as crucial as the training ofathletes. It is an investment that not only enhances the capabilities and effectiveness of the team butalso contributes to the sustained success of the organization. What are the strategies and benefits of […]
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Has Ethical Responsibility Been Left Out in the Cold?
The principles of ethical leadership include honesty, justice, respect, community and integrity, these are of foremost importance in any environment and are perhaps even more important than having knowledge of the sport in which an individual is leader. The ability to navigate complex situations and be guided by well-honed perceptions of […]
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Early Greatness: Is It Bad For Mental Health?
Greatness, no matter how long, sticks with a man. (Yes, I used the Gene Hackman reference from The Replacements again) But what is seldom thought about is, “What about greatness at an athlete’s early age?” I believe these situations have more potential to crush an athlete than potential to help […]
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Quicksand
Quicksand is a serious issue, and not one of folklore. It has been around since sports began in our civilization. It does not matter what level or type of sport that is being played, quicksand can happen anytime…and sometimes at the worst time. Mikaela Shiffrin qualified for multiple events in […]
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Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together?
The Beijing Olympics are underway, and I have settled into my usual Olympic stance. I ask myself questions. Do I care? Should I boycott? What is the Russian Olympic Committee? I’m curious, so I watch. Maybe something great, like the Miracle on Ice, will happen. These Olympics are different for […]
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Owning Your Role: How To Build A Team And Accept Help
Toughness and camaraderie in Sport Team Culture comes down to whether one is either “The Leader,” “The Soldier,” or “The Supporter.” Everyone plays a role. Leaders, soldiers, and supporters – they all create “The Team.” No-one can truly thrive without the other executing their job. These roles stem from the […]
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Mean Girls
I was reading a social media post about bad behavior in relationships and I was astounded by the statement “boys will be boys”. Is this perhaps a sterling example of poor or toxic behavior being normalized in society? Thomas Roulet, a professor of organisational theory at the University of Cambridge […]
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Recovery After an Extremely Toxic and Abusive Culture
Is your organization at rock bottom? There is no trust, little communication, people are scared and confused, employees are bracing for the worst, employees and athletes trust nobody, and athletes are looking elsewhere because of the toxic culture that you have identified and are now trying to change. If your […]
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Toxic Leadership In Work Settings
As our culture in sports starts to refine itself we gradually begin to fade away from traditional standards and start introducing new and fresh ideas. When a coach comes in a new setting and isn’t willing to adapt the specific culture of the team, organization, or sport we see a […]
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Clouds around the Olympic Rings: The Opening of the Beijing Winter Games
The Olympic Winter Games opened in Beijing in the midst of gathering clouds. Whether these clouds are a prelude to coming storms or will merely block the metaphoric sunshine of global peace, understanding, and transformative competition that the Olympics hope, on their best day, to be remains to be seen. […]
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Drawing A Line In The Sand: Athletes Do Not Stop Fighting, They Challenge Each Other
When I was in the 5th grade at Hatfield Elementary School (Uniontown, PA) I met a lifelong brother and the truest of friends, Joseph Spinuzza. The first thing we did was have a rubber-band gun fight (We were 11 years old) … the second thing that we did as friends […]
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Retiring from Perfection
This week is a celebration. The Greatest of All Time, the GOAT, has decided to retire from professional football. After winning 243 NFL games, including seven Super Bowls, and passing for 84,520 yards and 624 touchdowns in his 22-year career, Tom Brady will focus his time and energy on other […]
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Leading Change
Combining my studies, my job, this crazy condition we find ourselves in globally, and the topics I explore for Culture in Sports, I have found that the most prevalent unifying issue is the constancy of change and how we manage it. The culture of an organisation can be made or […]
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Empathy and Greatness: The Altruistic Lifestyle of a Great Coach
“Greatness, no matter how brief, stays with a man.” (A quote from the great actor Gene Hackman at the end of the superb Sport drama The Replacements, yeah I am indeed “fanboying” that performance) But what is greatness? Is it a Division-1 athlete who excels and wins a National title? […]
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Not a Circus Show
The San Francisco 49ers are on a roll. They are piling up wins with the greatest of ease, just like the man on the flying Trapeze. This month, they have been traveling from town to town in pursuit of reaching the Super Bowl. From Los Angeles to Dallas to Green […]
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Sometimes It Is Just Not a Good Fit
Sometimes it is not just a good fit and that is okay. Russell Westbrook was recently benched by the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and all reports point to Mr. Westbrook’s poor play. While it may be frustrating for Westbrook, fellow players, coaches, and the fans that his performance […]
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Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act: The precedent will be set, but will it be the right one?
History was made last week. Well, history is made every week, but on January 12th, the United States Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York filed the first ever charges under the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act of 2019. Shortly thereafter, the FBI office in El Paso, Texas took Eric […]
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Then There Was One: The Shameful Retention & Hiring of Minority Coaches in the NFL
There is little job security for NFL head coaches. It has been said NFL stands for Not For Long, rather than National Football League. But the league which has struggled to promote African American and other minority coaches to head coaching positions, despite having put forward and expanded its Rooney […]
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A Delay of Game is No Reason to Celebrate
On Martin Luther King Day, the Minnesota Vikings interviewed Catherine Raiche for their vacant general manager position. A cheeky sportswriter described it as the current Philadelphia Eagles executive “chatting” with Vikings executives. Other media accounts heralded the historic nature of Raiche’s candidacy. One particularly earnest reporter remembered the groundbreaking path […]
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Who’s Club Is It Anyway?
To say that English people love their football would represent a well-known and generally accepted statement. Over the past two decades, foreign ownership in English Football’s top flight has done nothing but increase. Football is a worldwide game attracting unimaginable amounts of money. For some context, several stars in the […]
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Making Your Mark: PA Best In History, Justin “Jolly” Rogers
Yeah guys and gals, you read the headline accurately, we actually call him “Jolly.” (Jolly Rogers … get it? Credit to Mr. Mark Morris for a hilarious nickname) Jolly is a 17-year-old Senior from Hershey, Pennsylvania. Jolly now is officially the highest high school pole vaulter in the history of […]
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Cleaning the Rivers
Last week, Georgia beat Alabama 33-18 in the College Football Playoff championship game. It was a rematch of a game played a month ago, featuring teams from bordering states in the corner of the country who play in the same conference. Also, it was a showcase of how the game […]
