ADMINISTRATORS

by The Associated Press

Wednesday April 09, 2008, 11:12 AM

OAKFIELD, N.Y. -- The former treasurer for a western New York Little League is accused of using his organization's bank card to buy Internet child pornography.

Authorities in Genesee County say 40-year-old Richard Dunlap of Oakfield also used the Oakfield-Alabama Little League Association's debit card to access adult dating services and to take his family on a vacation to Disney World two years ago.

According to court papers, Dunlap emptied the organization's $30,000 bank account. Federal authorities say he purchased the child pornography on his home computer.

Dunlap, a married father of three, served as the local Little League treasurer for nearly four years. He resigned after federal agents searched his home in late January.

By Christina Dunmyer

April 5th, 2008

Daily American

JOHNSTOWN — Veteran coaches know that the most frequent youth athletic injuries occur in football, gymnastics and hockey. Many even know that 52.4 percent of all skin infections occur in wrestlers. But that didn’t stop them, and younger coaches, from attending the Regional Resource Trauma Center at Memorial Medical Center’s Health and the Youth Athlete clinic Saturday.

“The reason I have my whole football staff involved is education,” said Windber head coach Phil DeMarco, who enters his 24th season in the fall. “We have heard several of these topics in the past, but we are always trying to protect the kids. That is the No. 1 priority. I made a few notes that I would like to address with the great training staff we have at Windber.”
Tom Causer, Trauma Coordinator for the event said, between 160-170 youth and junior and senior high coaches and officials, from several counties, attended the five hour clinic.

Dr. Lee Miller, Trauma and Critical Care Surgeon, and speaker on brain and nervous system injuries said, “We’re very happy with the turnout. We didn’t expect quite this many people.”

Read on...

Newsday.com
John Jeansonne

9:35 PM EST, March 1, 2008

Now comes the real Houdini trick for fans: Escaping from the escape.

Because, however accurate sport's historical function as the avoidance of reality, the shackles of troublesome developments increasingly ensnare those seeking relief in the fantasy universe of fun-and-games.

In a jock worshipper's equivalent of waterboarding, the FBI probe of Roger Clemens closely follows the lawsuit filed against the New England Patriots for spying and the resignation of Indiana basketball coach Kelvin Sampson for breaking the same recruiting rules he had violated in his previous job. Just to cite the most obvious cases.

Not surprisingly, a fair amount of evidence exists that the spectating public prefers not to ponder these difficulties. During Clemens' appearance last week at the Houston Astros' spring training camp, fans shouted at reporters stalking Clemens to "Leave him alone" and groused, "You're ruining it for the fans."

Will Leitch, editor of the enormously popular sports Web site Deadspin.com, began his new book, "God Save the Fan," with the chapter titled, "Please God, No, Not Another Essay About Steroids." He argued that fans don't care whether players ingest illegal chemicals; only that their team wins. "Being a sports fan," Leitch wrote, "mostly involves blissful ignorance of the outside world, and that is just fine [his italics]. That is, after all, why we watch sports in the first place."

When the story broke last September of Patriots coach Bill Belichick's nefarious video work, Peter Beinart, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, wrote in Time Magazine that Belichick would "make an excellent fan" precisely because Belichick "doesn't care about being fair to the other team; he doesn't even real.ly care about his own players. He just wants to win."

Could it be, then, that by voicing a preference to just get on with the games (and win them), the spectating public has gotten itself into this mess by signaling players, owners and commissioners that rules and federal law need not stand in the way of all-out competition -- thereby enabling these doping cat burglars?

"I don't believe that's the dominant message from people who admire sports," said ethicist Thomas Murray, president of the Hastings Center, whose resume includes past efforts fighting performance-enhancing drugs. "And, even if it is a significant number, they haven't thought through the consequences that, ultimately, sports will be dominated by maximum performance by whatever means at whatever costs.

"Then it will become exhibition. Circus. That's not sports."

Read On...

By The Associated Press

February 10th, 2008

Boston Herald

BOSTON - The stories have become all too familiar — young athletes, and sometimes their parents and coaches, turning a school playing field into the set of a Jerry Springer episode.

Now a bill set to be heard by Massachusetts lawmakers on Monday seeks to reduce the number and intensity of school sports scuffles by drafting new curriculum to teach sportsmanship.

Lawmakers and supporters hope the new pilot program could help young athletes learn how to conduct themselves both on and off the field. 

The bill would create lessons to help children develop "the mental skills associated with self-control in an effort to reduce violence, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, bullying and other destructive choices."

The teaching materials would be offered free of charge to youth and school sports leagues and teams.

Read on...

By Tanya Judd Pucella

January 15th, 2008

Teacher Magazine

I am a recovering anti-coach. For some years, I taught at a very (athletically) competitive high school. We were forever locked in battles for state football and basketball championships, and we were contenders in rowing, baseball, softball— just name a sport. If we’d changed our name to Sports High, the majority of our community would have been delighted.

As we continued to improve our athletic records, the administration began to make some interesting teacher-hiring decisions that appeared to be based more on coaching resumes than classroom prowess.

Read on...