Quality Sports - National Recreation and Park Association

NRPA supports the advancement of quality sports including sportsmanship, education and training. The information provided below does not imply a formal partnership or endorsement from NRPA, rather is provided as potential resource for communities to utilize when advancing quality youth sports.

The Citizenship Through Sports Alliance is the largest coalition of professional and amateur athletics organizations in the United States, focused on character in sport. CTSA promotes fair play at all levels - youth leagues to professional sport - to reinforce the value of sport as a test of character. Since 1997, CTSA has been building a sports culture that encourages respect for self, respect for others, and respect for the game.

Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) is transforming youth sports so sports can transform youth. Through partnership with more than 1,100 youth sports organizations, leagues, schools and cities nationwide, PCA has conducted 5,000-plus workshops for youth sports coaches, parents, organizational leaders and athletes. Jim_Momentum

Since Executive Director Jim Thompson founded PCA as a non-profit within the Stanford University Athletic Department in 1998, PCA has helped create a positive, character-building youth sports environment for more than 3 million youth athletes.

In face-to-face group workshops, dynamic PCA Trainers:

Train youth and high school sports coaches to become Double-Goal Coaches®, whose first goal is winning, and whose second, more-important goal is teaching life lessons through sports;
Develop Second-Goal Parents, who focus on helping their youth athletes learn those life lessons;
Cultivate Triple-Impact Competitors, student athletes who strive to improve themselves, their teammates and their sport as a whole.

PCA gains support from elite coaches and athletes, including Los Angeles Lakers Head Coach Phil Jackson as PCA National Spokesperson. PCA's National Advisory Board comprises such leaders as NBA and NCAA Champion Coach Larry Brown, former senator Bill Bradley, NFL Hall of Fame Member Ronnie Lott, Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer Summer Sanders, Olympic Gold Medal gymnasts Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci, University of North Carolina Men's Basketball Retired Head Coach Dean Smith, Cy Young Award winner Barry Zito, and Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Herm Edwards.

PCA partners, trainers, workshop attendees, National Advisory Board members and thousands of individuals, foundations and corporations together lead the Positive Coaching movement that is sweeping youth sports in this nation and beyond.

To request information on bringing Positive Coaching to your school or youth sports organization, click here.

On July 25, 2007 NRPA worked with Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC) and his staff to conduct a Congressional legislative briefing on youth sports in America. The briefing took place during Youth Sports Week, as designated by a Congressional Resolution. The event educated Hill staffers about the importance of youth sports and introduced the legislative package for the Congressional Youth Sports Caucus. NRPA worked closely with the Caucus to develop this package and will continue to advocate for all elements of the package.

Each measure in the package champions a mutual goal of improving the opportunities for youth sports participation around the country. These bills and appropriations requests would provide sufficient spaces, adequate resources, necessary information, and important incentives to create an environment friendly to youth sports activities. The package includes support for the following NRPA shared strategies:

NRPA worked with Cindy Roeder, the Acting Director of Herndon Department of Parks and Recreation, Herndon VA, to describe the enormous impact that LWCF has had in her town. The town of Herndon has received over $650,000 from the program to develop youth sports fields. Ms. Roeder joined an NFL star, an Olympian, and other youth sports advocates as a speaker on this dynamic panel.

For more information about the briefing or the Congressional Youth Sports Caucus, please e-mail mphillips@nrpa.org

Visit NRPA's USOC webpage for more information about the following Outreach & Education programs, including free resources for your agency.