Sportsmanship and Character
This fall, the ICASC is officially infusing
a Sportsmanship and Character program with our coaches, parents and players. As
you may know, our club has already been an advocate for positive sportsmanship.
During our most recent sponsored soccer tournaments (Futsal Fab 4’s & 5’s and
Super Sixes), we identified players within divisional age-groups who exhibited
good sportsmanship and we awarded a Pursuing Victory With Honor
SM (PVWH) Award. Thus far the
feedback from tournament participants, parents and coaches regarding the PVWH
Award has been extremely favorable and supportive.
This fall, we will supplement our
sportsmanship efforts. We will collaborate with the
Institute for Character Development (ICD) and utilize character education
programs,
CHARACTER COUNTS!SM
and
Pursuing Victory With Honor, to promote good sportsmanship and
character. The ICD facilitates the coordination of CHARACTER COUNTS! and
Pursuing Victory With Honor in Iowa and offers a broad range of support to
engage communities, schools, youth organizations, business and sports teams in
developing the
Six Pillars of CharacterSM
in a meaningful way.
At the club level, CC! /PVWH educational
materials are being introduced at team meetings and club functions and
parents/players will be given a CC!/PVWH hand-out as well as an wallet-size
sportsmanship guide to become familiar with the character and sportsmanship
language..
Secondly, in keeping with Iowa Soccer
Association (ISA) expectations to promote positive sportsmanship and behavior,
we will be requesting all of our ICASC coaches, parents and youth
participants to sign Iowa Soccer Association (ISA) code of conduct
http://www.iowasoccer.org/sportsmanship_content.htm
forms and submit to parent managers as a pledge to model good appropriate
ethical behavior at all of our competitive events.
Finally, it is our hope that ICASC coaches
and parents will embrace these sportsmanship and character initiatives and
utilize the CHARACTER COUNTS! & Pursuing Victory With Honor language to teach
appropriate sports-like behavior to our youth and model positive behavior on the
sidelines. In the future, look for more CC! /PVWH information at our website
link (i.e., sportsmanship and character), or through email and at team council
meetings. If you have questions/comments or would like to participate or
volunteer with this initiative, please contact Andy Winkelmann (Past-President)
(awink@mchsi.com).
CHARACTER COUNTS! the Six
Pillars of Character and Pursuing Victory With Honor are service marks of the
CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition, a project of the Josephson Institute of Ethics.
www.charactercounts.org.
