Tom MacLean, St. Regis Raiders Football Coach, Wins Positive Coaching Alliance’s Double-Goal Coach® Award Presented by Liberty Mutual Insurance.
March 11, 2010, Stanford, CA – Tom MacLean, coach of the St. Regis Raiders youth football team (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.), has won Positive Coaching Alliance’s coveted Double-Goal Coach Award Presented by Liberty Mutual Insurance for his positive impact on youth athletes.
The award – named for coaches whose first goal is winning, and whose second, more-important goal is teaching life lessons through sports – carries a $250 prize, a trophy and mention within the websites and newsletters of Positive Coaching Alliance and the Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports program.
“Tom wins on the scoreboard, and more importantly, he wins by creating a positive, character-building sports experience for youth athletes,” said Jim Thompson, PCA’s founder and executive director and author of several books on coaching and sports parenting, including the just-released The Power of Double-Goal Coaching. “Ultimately, the youth athletes Tom coaches are the real winners, and as those athletes become tomorrow’s leaders our society as a whole wins.”
MacLean uses football to rally his community and to help players and their families cope with grief. As one award nomination letter explained, “In the years that our sons have played, we have had some terrible tragedies in the St. Regis community. Parents have lost children. Children have lost parents. At each and every turn, Tom has brought the broader community together to lift these families up from whatever has befallen them. The strength and resiliency of the human spirit is amazing, and Tom coaches us to remember that time and time again. And we almost forgot to mention, his team won the Detroit CYO Championship this year!”
Recalling the death of a player’s father, MacLean said, “It was a really tough deal. But this boy told his mom he had to get to practice because he knew we were going to pray for his dad. That boy set such an example, understanding how much our prayers meant. It was really beautiful. I told them, ‘You’re going to face things in your life that are going to be very tough to deal with, and sometimes there’s no operating manual on how to get through it. But you’ve got some key things. You have your faith, family and friends. And you have lessons from football. Sometimes the other team is on your five yard line and you’re tired, but you battle, and you don’t give up, and even if you lose the game, if you tried your hardest you can walk off the field with your head held high. The same thing happens in off-the-field situations, where loved ones pass away.’ That’s the sort of stuff we’re talking about.”
“As an insurance company that celebrates people who choose to do the right thing, we believe that youth sport coaching is a clear example of how individuals can promote the fundamental ideals of community,” said Greg Gordon, Liberty Mutual’s Senior Vice President of Consumer Marketing. “By focusing on positive mentoring, Tom has created a culture of responsibility among young athletes and parents. And by doing so, he has earned increasingly hard-to-find funding for his team.”
Liberty Mutual and PCA have also partnered to help youth sports coaches and parents, through the Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports program. Founded in 2007, the program serves as a means to highlight the positive impact that everyday, responsible actions can have on our youth.
The Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports program provides resources for parents and coaches at ResponsibleSports.com to help children reap the full benefits of playing a team sport. The online community incorporates blogs, videos, and best practices on youth sports topics that provide practical, real-world advice. Parents and coaches also can complete guides on positive sports mentoring that offer best practices for handling challenging sports scenarios.
About Positive Coaching Alliance
Founded as a non-profit within the Stanford University Athletic Department in 1998, Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) has the mission of “transforming youth sports so sports can transform youth.” To that end, PCA has conducted roughly 7,000 live group workshops nationwide for more than 400,000 youth and high school sports leaders, coaches, parents and athletes. Workshop attendees have helped create a positive, character-building youth sports environment for more than 3 million youth athletes.
PCA’s partnership network includes more than 1,700 youth sports organizations, cities and schools. In 2010, PCA will conduct roughly 1,300 live, group workshops across the U.S., while assisting thousands of other individuals via online courses at www.PositiveCoach.org.
PCA workshops train coaches to be Double-Goal Coaches, whose first goal is winning and whose second, more-important goal is teaching life lessons through sports. PCA sports parent workshops cultivate “Second-Goal ParentsTM,” who focus on life lessons through sports. PCA student-athlete workshops produce “Triple-Impact CompetitorsTM,” who work to improve themselves, their teammates, and their sport as a whole.
PCA has the support of elite coaches and athletes on a National Advisory Board (http://www.positivecoach.org/advisoryboard.aspx), including National Spokesperson, Los Angeles Lakers Coach Phil Jackson.
About Liberty Mutual Group
“Helping people live safer, more secure lives” since 1912, Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group (http://www.LibertyMutualGroup.com ) is a diversified global insurer and fifth-largest property and casualty insurer in the U.S. based on 2008 direct written premium. Liberty Mutual Group ranks 86th on the Fortune 500 list of largest U.S. corporations, based on 2008 revenue. The company has over 45,000 employees located in more than 900 offices throughout the world.The eighth-largest auto and home insurer in the U.S., Liberty Mutual (http://www.LibertyMutual.com ) sells full lines of coverage for automobile, homeowners, valuable possessions, personal liability, and individual life insurance. The company is an industry leader in affinity partnerships, offering car and home insurance to employees and members of more than 12,000 companies, credit unions, professional associations and alumni groups.
Contact:
David Jacobson, Positive Coaching Alliance
Phone: 650-210-0808
E-mail: david_jacobson@positivecoach.org
Glenn Greenberg, Liberty Mutual
Phone: 617-574-5874
E-mail: glenn.greenberg@libertymutual.com |
