The Institute for International Sport at URI (www.internationalsport.com) and the Positive Coaching Alliance at Stanford University (www.positivecoach.org) have selected 18 individuals and two organizations to be honored as the 2010 Sports Ethics Fellows.  These honorees 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.

“Since 1993, we have been privileged to recognize distinguished sports educators who place a very high value on fair play.  We have designated these outstanding individuals as Sports Ethics Fellows.  This year’s group of Fellows represents the very best of American sport and education,” said Daniel E. Doyle Jr., Founder and Director of National Sportsmanship Day.

Administered by the Institute for International Sport based at the University of Rhode Island, the annual National Sportsmanship Day program is widely considered the largest sportsmanship initiative in the world. Annually, the Positive Coaching Alliance partners with the Institute to select Sports Ethics Fellows.

The following individuals are 2010 Sports Ethics Fellows:

Solomon Alexander – Director, St. Louis Sports Foundation, St Louis, MO Solomon Alexander leads the St. Louis Sports Foundation’s Sportsmanship Initiative, a series of programs designed to establish St. Louis as a model community for good sportsmanship. The Sportsmanship Initiative seeks to improve the experiences of young athletes by reaching out to coaches, parents, officials, athletes and fans to pursue ideals of respect, civility, integrity, and fair play. The St. Louis Sports Foundation, in conjunction with the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance, annually conducts the AT&T National Sportsmanship Awards. Alexander also runs a sportsmanship blog at: http://stlsportsmanship.blogspot.com.

Clark Baker – President and CEO, YMCA of Greater Houston, Houston, TX Clark Baker is a nationally recognized leader within the YMCA movement. He is currently spearheading a pilot program to provide Positive Coaching Alliance Double-Goal Coach® training and certification to all coaches within the YMCA of Greater Houston. His pioneering effort is a first strike in a broad, visionary program to make Houston the nation’s first Double-Goal City. This Double-Goal concept refers to winning on the scoreboard, and the second, more important goal, teaching life lessons through sports.

William Burke III – Headmaster, St. Sebastian’s School, Needham, MA William Burke III has been Headmaster of St. Sebastian’s School since 1990. He is a member of the Headmaster’s Association and has served on the boards of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and the Association of Independent Schools in New England. Mr. Burke has achieved a national reputation for his advocacy of sportsmanship. He will be working with the Institute for International Sport on sportsmanship related programs for Independent Schools. He will also be assisting the Institute for International Sport with planning for the 2011 World Youth Peace Summit and World Scholar-Athlete Games.

Dan Cardone – Director of Athletics, North Hills School District, Pittsburgh, PA Dan Cardone has been Athletic Director at North Hills since 1992, and a teacher and coach for 17 years. He has done extensive work throughout Western PA with sportsmanship. He founded the Student Athlete Leadership Academy; initiated the first WPIAL Sportsmanship Summit; developed a Code of Conduct for Spectators; and has authored over 80 articles on interscholastic athletics. North Hills is a seven time winner of the PA Interscholastic Athletic Association’s statewide award for sportsmanship, and in 2006 was named an All-American Sportsmanship school by the Institute for International Sport.

Joe Drape – Sportswriter, New York Times and author of Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen Joe Drape has written extensively about youth and high school sports. His book, Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen, profiling Smith Center (KS) High School Football Coach Roger Barta is an inspiration to anyone who cares about developing youth through sports. Coaches, parents, school and organizational leaders, and athletes all can benefit from the life lessons Barta teaches and Drape illuminates in his moving prose.

Mark Duncan – Athletic Director, Shipley School, Philadelphia, PA Mark Duncan is a former All-America lacrosse player at Lehigh University. He brings a keen focus on character-development to the student-athletes he serves and extends that effort to his counterparts within the Philadelphia area’s Friends Schools League. Mark also leads lacrosse camps, incorporating former college stars, and has opened The Shipley’s School’s facilities to underserved players participating in LEAPS (Lacrosse Education Attitude Perseverance and Success).

Mark Hyman – Author, Until it Hurts: America’s Obsession with Youth Sports Mark Hyman, a journalist who frequently writes about youth sports, gave insight and hope to sports parents, and by extension their children, through his unsparing examination of his role as sports parent. Until it Hurts is Hyman’s unflinching look in the mirror, where he sees some ill effects of his behavior on the health and athletic career of his son. By enduring and sharing that pain, Hyman has spared pain for many others.

Mark Krail – Athletic Director & Football Coach, Pioneer High School, San Jose, CA Mark Krail’s football teams have won league titles while maintaining a reputation for playing with honor, dignity and exemplifying the virtues espoused in the CA Interscholastic Federation’s (CIF) Pursuing Victory with Honor program. In the fall of 2009, while compiling an undefeated regular season, Krail piloted a new aspect of Positive Coaching Alliance’s Triple-Impact CompetitorTM program, using weekly talking points on how his players can have impact at three levels, improving themselves, their teammates and the game as a whole. CIF recently named Krail one of 13 “Model Coaches” for 2009-2010. He also founded the Coach’s for a Cure golf tournament, which he hosts annually to raise money for cancer research.

Richard Lawrence – Director of Athletics, Mount Saint Charles Academy, Woonsocket, RI Richard Lawrence decided, based on Dan Doyle’s Five Principals of Honorable Competition, to implement an initiative about five or six years ago in which the varsity sports team captains at Mount Saint Charles are asked to promote and model honorable competition on the playing field. The captains also write stories about their experiences and share them with the school community.

Tom Mezzanotte – Executive Director, Rhode Island Interscholastic League, Providence, RI As the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL), Tom Mezzanotte has worked tirelessly with the member schools, their athletes, coaches and fans to promote the tenants of sportsmanship and ethics in sports. These lessons have provided the RIIL’s student-athletes with the foundation necessary to build character, and the positive values of humility, hard work, and integrity in sports and in life.

Laura Mitchell – CEO, Sports Dreammakers, Los Angeles, CA Laura Mitchell inspires and instructs student-athletes to pursue avenues available to them through sports. A former collegiate basketball player and coach, she presents keynote speeches around the US emphasizing the importance of academics and a systematized approach to pursuing college scholarships and handling the recruiting process. She is the author of such publications on these topics as The Map of Your Future and The Smart and Savvy Parents’ Guide to Helping Your Teen Reach Their Athletic Dreams. She is currently co-writing a book for student athletes with former Denver Broncos Super Bowl MVP Terrell Davis and Denver Broncos Super Bowl Champion Byron Chamberlain.

Scott Myers – Executive Director, World Sport, Chicago, IL Scott Myers leads his organization – the legacy of Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics – in creating and expanding youth sports opportunities in Chicago. World Sport Chicago conducts youth-facing initiatives, such as international youth soccer tournaments and beach volleyball tournaments. With a focus on sport as a vehicle for social, health and character development, WSC partners with local and national organizations to launch programs in swimming, badminton, wrestling, weightlifting archery and track. WSC’s latest initiative is Coach for Chicago, which matches people who want to volunteer to support a youth program in the city with organizations looking for support.

Amy Nakamoto – Executive Director, DC Scores, Washington, DC Amy Nakamoto spearheads an after-school program that provides roughly 700 children in underserved communities with training in soccer, community service and creative writing. She also serves on the board of directors of the SportsChallenge Leadership and Education Alliance, which develops high school and college leaders through workshops and summer programs. Nakamoto also leads workshops for youth and high school sports coaches, parents, organizational leaders and athletes as a Positive Coaching Alliance Trainer.

David Nisbett – President, Sports Operations, 78th Precinct Youth Council, New York, NY David Nisbett uses sports to expand opportunity for youth in his community, including the creation of an innovative sports-management internship program that provides high school students with opportunities to work in a sports organization, officiate competitions, and coach younger athletes. The unique advisory board Nisbett has helped assemble for his organization includes current or former leaders working for the New York Mets, the Brooklyn Cyclones and the Brooklyn City Council. In this way, he integrates 78th Precinct Youth Council into some of Brooklyn’s most prominent institutions while also affording youth the chance to interact with, learn from, and aspire to emulate advisory board members.

Jack O'Malley – Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Scranton, PA & Chair, Bochicchio Sports Character Initiative Jack O’Malley, Ph.D. is chair of the steering committee of the Bochicchio Sport Character Initiative which was founded to promote positive coaching and to foster the character development of young athletes, by teaching them respect, responsibility, and sportsmanship. Additionally, O’Malley has championed National Sportsmanship Day celebrations as part of the University’s ongoing initiative to promote sportsmanship not only in its own sports education classes and athletic programs, but throughout the community. O’Malley has been Associate Professor of Psychology at Scranton since 1971.

Peter Sabin – Director, Eureka Youth Soccer Club, Eureka, CA Peter Sabin is a pioneer in implementing and tracking the results of the sportsmanship initiative within his youth soccer organization. Serving 1,600 players, league officials this season assessed only four red cards and 19 yellow cards in the 2009 season. Sabin also is an outspoken advocate for sportsmanship in contact with leaders of neighboring youth sports organizations and in Northern California media outlets.

Steve Stanford – Palma Ceia Little League, Tampa, FL Steve Stanford, a local business owner by day, has been president of the south Tampa league since 2007. He spearheads efforts to instill a positive culture among coaches, parents, and umpires. For consecutive years, Steve has instituted training programs that provide coaches with tools needed to lead and inspire young athletes. The league has responded with tremendous growth, serving more than 600 youth baseball and softball players and consistently reaching out to adjacent leagues with training and skills development clinics at the Palma Ceia park. Adopted under Steve’s leadership, the league’s mission statement reads, “In a safe and park-like setting, provide baseball and softball instruction to young athletes; teaching the importance of winning the game while, at the same time, building character, instilling sportsmanship, and providing a forum to learn valuable life lessons; and allowing volunteers to contribute to the community in important and meaningful ways.”

Bill Wells – Columnist, Springfield Republican, Springfield, MA Bill Wells writes Youth Sports Spotlight, a periodic column in the Springfield Republican that explores issues and trends in youth sports, mixed with healthy doses of opinion and humor. He also frequently profiles notable youth and high school athletes in his community with great sensitivity and depth, including everyone from the most prominent local high school athletes to a 9-year-old swimmer battling Tourette’s Syndrome.