Mountain View, CA– Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA), the leading non-profit dedicated to transforming youth sports to provide character development in youth athletes, announces its “Life is a Team Sport” campaign to support the millions of youth athletes, coaches and parents currently left without the benefits of youth sports. Leveraging more than two decades of work developing youth character and life skills, PCA will extend access to its curriculum and national network of youth sports experts.

“From our perspective, there’s no better time to reinforce the character-building aspects of youth sports,” said Chris Moore, PCA’s CEO. “Both because the sports hiatus has left many of us with extra time and also because it’s never been more important that we work together as a team for the benefit of us all. Life is a team sport, and now more than ever, we need to be good teammates to one another – including to our family, friends and our broader communities.”

Sports will be back and PCA wants to use this “off season” to get its team ready to make the most of everything youth sports has to offer. To do that, PCA offered its 60-minute interactive online athlete course for free to everyone from March to mid-June.  Typically available for $30, the specialized course includes PCA National Advisory Board members, Doc Rivers, Julie Foudy, Shane Battier and other top coaches, athletes, and experts teaching student-athletes how to make positive contributions to their teams on the field and off.

Also during this time at home, PCA will work to share relevant resources designed to help build character while working to connect its extended team of millions across the country, even when it can’t be together physically. These include:

• Movie Discussion Guides for teams (or families) to watch apart and then come together virtually to discuss
• Weekly Facebook Live streams with expert PCA trainers to deliver tools, community and resources each Tuesday afternoon
• Weekly Facebook Live streams with some of the celebrated sports figures on PCA’s National Advisory Board (recent events included Julie Foudy, Lindsay Gottlieb and Greg Dale)
• Weekly Friday emails sent to the entire PCA network with helpful resources like a recent article on managing disappointment during Corona virus-related cancellations and postponements

Given the trauma kids are experiencing during this global health crisis, training for our youth coaches will be more important than ever when these kids return to sports,” added Moore. “PCA is proud to deliver training that will ensure coaches are trained in Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in order to support kids across the nation as we all start the transition back.”

PCA has also transitioned some of its in-person training to virtual content to help coaches, athletes and parents connect during this difficult time while continuing to leverage the skills obtained on the playing field to work together as a team. Following very positive customer feedback on its first live coaching workshop conducted via Zoom this month, PCA is following participant recommendations to offer additional workshops to schools and youth organizations, partnering with PCA to help them even better serve their communities during this time of school closures and sports cancelations.  Schools and youth serving organizations, can visit positivecoach.org/zoom for more information and to sign up for more information about these Zoom workshops.About Positive Coaching Alliance

Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) is a national non-profit organization with the mission of creating a positive, character-building youth sports environment that results in BETTER ATHLETES, BETTER PEOPLE.

Youth sports currently involves 40 million children, which presents a tremendous platform on which to develop youth character and life skills. Research has shown that in order for youth to accrue these benefits from sports, sports needs to be done in a way that creates a positive youth development culture. PCA ensures sports are ‘done right’ with programming that is research-based and designed to have an impact at three levels in a youth sports organization or school:

• Youth experience improved life skills and character development.  They also perform better!
• Coaches become more positive and increase their focus on using sports to teach life lessons.
• Youth Sports Organizations & Schools see their cultures become more positive and everyone involved has more fun.

Since its founding in 1998, PCA has established 18 chapters nationwide, partnered with roughly 3,500 schools and youth sports organizations to deliver more than 20,000 live group workshops, reaching over 20 million youth. PCA offers interactive online courses and has thousands of multimedia tips and tools for coaches, parents, athletes, and leaders available free of charge on PCADevZone.org. PCA also runs two annual awards programs: a scholarship program for high school student-athletes and a coach award program to recognize youth and high school coaches who strive to win and teach life lessons.

PCA gains support from a National Advisory Board of elite coaches, professional and Olympic athletes, organization leaders, and academics who share PCA’s mission including Dusty Baker, Carol Dweck, Herm Edwards, Julie Foudy, Phil Jackson, and Steve Kerr. PCA is proud to partner with more than 50 national governing bodies, youth serving organizations and professional leagues and teams including Boys & Girls Club of America, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and US Lacrosse.

Media contact:

Casey Miller
Positive Coaching Alliance
Vice President, External Relations
casey_miller@positivecoach.org
978.390.0011