The Institute for International Sport and Positive Coaching Alliance at Stanford University have selected 19 individuals and one conference to be honored as the 2008 Sports Ethics Fellows. These Sports Ethics Fellows have demonstrated admirable leadership in the areas of fair play and sportsmanship. Sports Ethics Fellows include nationally known individuals, as well as others who have engaged in developing sportsmanship and honorable competition on a local scale.

The Institute for International Sport (www.internationalsport.com), which is based at the University of Rhode Island and administers the annual Sports Ethics Fellows selections, is pleased to have worked with Positive Coaching Alliance at Stanford University (www.positivecoach.org) on the 2008 selections.

The 2008 Sports Ethics Fellows include:

Jennifer Azzi is an NCAA Champion, NCAA Player of the Year while at Stanford University, a 1996 Olympic Basketball Gold Medalist and retired professional basketball player. She is a National Advisory Board Member for Positive Coaching Alliance, frequently spreading a positive sports message in media and event appearances, including the April 12, 2008 National Youth Sports Awards presented by Deloitte. Jennifer remains an active coach and trainer through her business Azzi Training, which offers youth basketball camps.

Scott Barnum is a coach and board member for Northern California’s Menlo-Atherton Little League. In addition to leading his teams to on-field excellence, Scott is coordinating the process of integrating character-education into the organizations and is an outspoken advocate in his community for increased access to playing fields.

Ruthie Bolton is a two-time Olympic Basketball Gold Medalist in 1996 and 2000, former star of the WNBA’s Sacramento Monarchs and now serves as the Monarchs’ manager of fan and team relations. She is a National Advisory Board Member for Positive Coaching Alliance and was a featured speaker at the launch of the Congressional Youth Sports Caucus in Washington, DC. Ruthie, one of 20 siblings, frequently tells of her late father’s encouragement to maintain a Positive Mental Attitude as she strived to achieve. Today, Ruthie shares that advice in her many public appearances and coaching activities.

Michael Casotti is a coach and administrator for Northern California’s Mustang Soccer League. According to its mission statement, Mustang Soccer launched in 1972 “for the purpose of providing positive and safe soccer opportunities to children from age five through 18.” Michael is the organization’s designated administrator charged with ensuring the league delivers on its mission statement. Mustang Soccer serves more than 5,000 children, nearly half the eligible population of the San Ramon Valley School District.

Richie Dell’Anno is a coach, administrator and member of the board of directors for Colt’s Neck (NJ) Sports Foundation, a 40-year-old multi-sport organization serving the community’s youth. Richie is a tireless advocate for the spread of positive coaching both in his area’s media outlets and among leaders of youth sports organizations in neighboring communities.

Jon DeStefano is president of Colorado Youth Soccer (CYS). He coached various CYS teams and at Evergreen (CO) High School for a combined 25 years and also serves on the board of directors of Denver SCORES, an after-school soccer and creative-writing program for at-risk youth. Jon famously stood up for sportsmanship in 2005 in the face of an obscene mid-field chant by the U-17 team that had just won the state championship and the chance to represent Colorado in the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championship Series. He stripped the team of its right to advance. And his decision stood against the team’s appeals all the way to the Colorado District Courts. A long-time educator, Jon was recognized as “Outstanding School Board Member” by the Colorado Athletic Directors Association. Most notably, as president of Jefferson County Public Schools, he led his community through the Columbine High School shooting tragedy.

Patrick Escobar is vice president, grants and programs for Los Angeles’ LA84 Foundation (formerly Amateur Athletic Foundation). Endowed from the budget surplus of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, the mission of the non-profit LA84 Foundation is to “serve youth through sport and to increase knowledge of sport and its impact on people’s lives.” The LA84 Foundation supports a wide array of youth sports programming, awarding grants to youth sports organizations, conducting its own youth sports and coaching education programs, and operating the largest sports research library in North America, the Paul Ziffren Sports Resource Center. Under Patrick’s leadership, LA 84 Foundation has disbursed funding that has impacted 2 million children in more than 1,000 youth sports organizations throughout Southern California.

Christine Franek is a professor and Head Tennis Coach at Wellesley College. Currently in her seventh season, Christine has led the team to four-straight conference titles as well as four consecutive NCAA bids. She has earned NEWMAC Coach of the Year honors for the last four years as well as USTA New England College Coach of the Year and Wilson-ITA Coach of the Year for the Northeast Region in 2006. As a testament to her leadership ability, her team has won the NEWMAC Sportsmanship Award both times in the two-year history of the honor. Christine has recently been appointed as Managing Editor of the newly created “Sports Issues Review Journal” that will be published by the prestigious Berkeley Electronic Press of Berkeley, California.

Ted Gott is athletic director at Harwood, MD’s Southern High School. His leadership made Southern the first high school in the nation to earn Positive Coaching Alliance’s Seal of Commitment for pledging that all the school’s coaches would be trained and certified as Double-Goal Coaches®, whose first goal is winning, and whose second, more-important goal is teaching life lessons through sports. Upon his arrival at Southern four years ago, Ted decided character education would mark the school’s athletic program.

The Great Northeast Athletic Conference, which consists of Albertus Magnus College, Daniel Webster College, Emerson College, Emmanuel College, Johnson & Wales University, Lasell College, Mount Ida College, Norwich University, Pine Manor College, Rivier College, Saint Joseph College, Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, Simmons College, and Suffolk University, has shown a strong commitment to sportsmanship throughout the conference. All member institutions are participants of the NCAA Division III Fan Sportsmanship Program. The GNAC has also chosen sportsmanship as the main theme of the 2007 GNAC Professional Development Seminar.

Stephen Keener is president and CEO of Little League Baseball and Softball. Among the world’s largest youth sports organizations, Little League has more than 7,400 local affiliates in more than 100 countries. Under Stephen’s leadership Little League has made a commitment to focus on character-education and life lessons by pioneering such training initiatives as the online Little League Double-Goal Coach Course and a series of webinars for local Little League leaders and coaches.

Mat Levine since 1996 has run CityLax (formerly Doc’s NYC Lacrosse) dedicated to spreading lacrosse throughout inner-city New York. In 2007, CityLax helped double the number of teams playing in the New York City Public School Lacrosse League and initiated the Mayor's Cup of Lacrosse Championships. Mat is a singular force in bringing lacrosse to children who otherwise would have no avenue into the sport and the opportunities for education and advancement it provides.

U.S. Representative Mike McIntyre (D-NC) is a leader in putting youth sports on the national agenda by founding and co-chairing the Congressional Youth Sports Caucus. In 2007, he introduced the first-ever Youth Sports Legislative Package. The Caucus recently sponsored an event on Capitol Hill to promote building character through sports in conjunction with the Congressional hearings on steroid use in baseball. Representative McIntyre’s activity brings a much-needed focal point for government advocacy on behalf of youth athletes.

Darrell Miller is director of Major League Baseball’s Urban Youth Academy based in Compton, CA. The Academy launched in 2006 with the mission “to set the standard for instruction, teaching and education in Urban America through the strength of the National Pastime and to enhance the quality of life in the surrounding communities.” To that end, Darrell was the driving force behind the March, 2008 inaugural MLB Urban Invitational. Thousands of young baseball fans flocked to the games pitting two Historically Black Colleges and Universities -- Bethune-Cookman University and Southern University -- against UCLA and USC. Among Urban Youth Academy’s other efforts: an ongoing online equipment drive soliciting used gloves for youth players in underserved communities.

Lisa Paige is director of sponsorships and community marketing for Liberty Mutual, where she spearheaded development of the company’s Responsible Sports program, a partnership among Liberty Mutual, USA Football, US Youth Soccer and Positive Coaching Alliance. Responsible Sports has raised awareness of the nation’s youth sports issues and provided solutions to many of them. Among those: online Responsible Coaching and Responsible Sports Parenting guides; Community Grants to the youth sports organizations in each state that bring the most people through those guides; and The Responsible Coaching Awards, honoring local youth sports coached nominated by members of their communities.

Bob Reece is a long-time youth sports coach for the Evanston, IL-based Fellowship of African-American Men (FAAM), which aids many underserved children. The organization requires its players to maintain an acceptable grade-point-average and asks each child to write an essay about his FAAM experience. Ironically, despite his decades of service to African-American youth, Bob gained a measure of local fame for coaching the lone white player in the organization, current Duke University basketball star Jon Scheyer. “Coach Reece has been very influential in my life,” Scheyer wrote in a journal for the Chicago Sun-Times. “He has taught me a lot about life. He has been volunteering his time to the community for 30 years.”

Ron Smith and Frank Smoll are pioneers in researching ways to improve youth sports. Sports psychology researchers at the University of Washington, they often work as a team. They designed the Coach Effectiveness Training program (CET) to instruct youth sports coaches on the finer points of team-building, esteem-nurturing, and example-setting. According to an American Psychological Association abstract on their work, “CET teaches coaches to be aware of their behaviors, to understand how their behaviors are perceived by their young athletes, and to foresee the impacts of their behaviors. CET also instills in coaches a commitment to improving children's skills and rewarding their efforts, replacing the ‘winning is everything’ philosophy that is common in sports.”

Michael A. Town is a circuit court judge assigned to the Criminal Division of the Circuit Court in Honolulu, HI, as well as an ocean-sports coach. He often brings both roles to bear in taking a positive coaching approach to his family court proceedings, as well as his national and international speeches on resiliency, vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue in judges, judge as coach, problem-solving courts, and therapeutic, preventive and restorative justice. Judge Town sits on the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Hawaii and Positive Coaching Hawai’i.

John Wallace may coach more youth teams than any person alive. He coaches multiple teams in Houston’s Southwest Football League, Post Oak Little League and United Christian Athletic League. He is a founding member on the board of directors of Positive Coaching Alliance-Houston and a tireless advocate of making sports a positive experience for youth throughout the Houston area.

Jason Williams currently serves as the Director of CHAMPS Life Skills, Director of Advising Center, and the Director of the "First Year Experience" course at Endicott College, while at the same time pursuing a MA in Sport Management where he wrote his thesis on “The Effect of Corporate Sponsorship on Student-Athletes’ Educational Experience.” Jason's ongoing passion for helping students find the balance between high level athletics and important life skills is clear through his commitment to student-athletes and both their academic and athletic success.