Positive Coaching Alliance

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Read 30 Seconds with Jim Thompson, an interview in the New York Times with the founder of Positive Coaching Alliance.

West Hartford Little League is proud to enter in to our second year partnership with Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA). This partnership has marked yet another major upgrade in the West Hartford Little League "Fair Ball" sentiment. This is a significant initiative we undertook last year in attempting to providing the best possible education and resources for our Little League coaches and parents from Rookie to Majors in ways that go measurably beyond just teaching the game of baseball.

Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) is a nationally recognized, nonprofit organization founded at Stanford University with the mission to transform youth sports so sports can transform youth. PCA was created to transform the culture of youth sports to give all young athletes the opportunity for a positive, character-building experience. PCA has the support and backing from some of the most recognized names in sports, many of whom serve on PCA's National Advisory Board. This list comprises of such leaders as PCA National Spokesman and 10-Time NBA Champion Coach Phil Jackson, 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 has three national goals that West Hartford Little League will continue to build off of:

1. Replace the "win-at-all-cost" model of coaching with the Double-Goal Coach®, who wants to win but has a second, more important, goal of using sports to teach life lessons;

2. Teach youth sports organization leaders how to create an organizational culture in which Honoring the Game is the norm; and

3. Spark and fuel a "social epidemic" of Positive Coaching that will sweep this country.

There are many people in this nation who want to change the culture of youth sports, but they do not feel equipped to do so. Those within West Hartford Little League feel that we have begun to take the proper strides towards this change already. PCA allows us to extend that reach even further! Positive Coaching Alliance has developed practical tools to change the culture of youth sports beyond what we know today and is now making them available specifically to our WHLL coaches and parents.

For more information on this major initiative, please visit http://www.positivecoach.org or feel free to contact WHLL/PCA contact Michael Lage at michael_f_lage@sbcglobal.net or WHLL President Gary Druckenmiller at info@westhartfordlittleleague.com.

We are very excited about continuing to offer this advanced coaching program for the 2012 WHLL Season and the progressive benefits and efforts that will come out of it. We hope that it continues to prove the WHLL allegiance to fair and balanced baseball play at all ages.