League of Fans' Sports Forum

In this episode we chat with SHAPE America board member Clayton Ellis.  Clayton is a former national physical education teacher of the year.  He's one of our nation's leading advocates for getting our young people to be more physically active so they can enjoy the physical, mental, behavioral and academic benefits.  Clayton and I talk about the physical inactivity epidemic plaguing our youth and how the problem has worsened since the onset of Covid-19.  Over 75% of our young people aren't active for even 20 minutes a day.  Physical education isn't just about physical wellness, it's also about mental wellness.  Fit kids perform better academically and have fewer behavioral problems.  We talk about Phil Lawler, the "Father of the New PE" and how he created a model physical education program in Naperville, IL.  Clayton ends with some comments about how the pandemic represents a great opportunity to modify education in general and physical education in particular.

Jim Thompson started Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) in 1998 to help create a movement to transform the culture of youth sports from "win-at-all-costs" to a positive, character-building experience.  PCA conducts thousands of workshops every year for youth sports leaders, coaches, parents and athletes.  Thompson is the author of numerous books on youth sports, including Positive Coaching: Building Character and Self-Esteem Through Sports; Elevating Your Game: Becoming a Triple Impact Competitor; and The Positive Sport Parent. In this episode, we discuss what the biggest problem in youth sports is today, why the actions of adults contribute to burn-out for young athletes, the scary trend of sport specialization by young athletes, the lack of child development training for youth coaches, the need for more "double goal" coaches, and why kids say they quit youth sports.  We also chat about Jim's upcoming book on the need for a new vision for youth sports.  Finally, we talk about Jim's new passion: fighting climate change.

In this episode of League of Fans' Sports Forum podcast we talk with Patrick Hruby, a journalist who has done extensive research and in-depth writing on the topic of brain trauma in sports, most notably football.  Patrick believes brain trauma is our country's most important contemporary sports issue.  We touch on brain injuries and CTE at the NFL and college levels, however, the focus of our discussion is on the millions of kids playing football at the youth and high school levels.   Patrick and I talk about how repetitive sub-concussive impact can be as damaging long-term as multiple concussions and how it's very unlikely that a high-tech helmet will ever be developed that will protect the brain inside the skull.  Our discussion moves on to other sports in which brain injuries can occur, like hockey and soccer, and why football presents unique challenges. We close with Patrick discussing current scientific efforts to develop a way to detect CTE in the living and what that could mean for football's concussion crisis.

In this episode we talk coaching styles with veteran sports sociologist Jay Coakley.  Jay is a former college basketball player who went on to earn a Ph.D. in Sociology from Notre Dame.  He then became one of the nation's preeminent sports sociologists.  He is the author of the leading sports sociology text, "Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies," now in its 13th edition.

In this episode, we chat with John Gerdy, a former college athlete and NCAA and SEC administrator who became a sports reformer later in his career.  We talk about the current situation in college athletics amidst a pandemic; compensation for college athletes; big-time Power Five college sports vs. Division II and Division III athletics; how college athletes might gain a stronger voice on policy matters; the role of high school athletics in public education; and which delivers the better bang for the buck, varsity athletics, quality physical education programs or top-notch music programs. We end with a look forward for college and high school athletics.

Title IX, the landmark law that was created in 1972 to prohibit educational programs that receive federal financial assistance from discriminating on the basis of sex, has been a great success in terms of creating athletics opportunities for girls and young women in high schools and colleges across the country.  That said, the gap in athletics opportunities and athletics funding between males and females is still quite significant, and sadly, the gap is increasing in recent years.  In this episode, we talk with Title IX pioneer, Dr. Donna Lopiano, the former director of women's athletics at the University of Texas, and the long-time CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation.   She has regularly been named one of "The 100 Most Influential People in Sports" by the Sporting News.  We chatted with a passionate Lopiano about her early experiences fighting for equal opportunity in the '60's and 70's, why Title IX enforcement has been lax, the myth that Title IX hurts male sports, the shortage of female athletics administrators, how Title IX benefits society as a whole, and what's needed for us to finally reach true equal opportunity in sports.