Society’s Pressure: How It Affects Sports Biggest Stories

Image From:  quiltville.blogspot.com

Over the past decade, the sports industry has seen its fair share of memorable stories, which makes naming just one as being the “biggest” story in sports seem impossible.  From 53 of the 120 universities in the NCAA committing major violations to the record-setting salary deals and prize winnings of athletes such as Alex Rodriguez and Tiger Woods, no sport, professional or amateur was immune to controversy.  With the end of baseball’s regular season coming near, the steroids era of Major League Baseball when players were believed to be using performance-enhancing drugs is also brought to mind. 

Maybe the story that will forever remain unchanged in the sports industry is society’s increasing pressure and competition for athletes, teams, and leagues to provide bigger and better results and entertainment than in the past.  Alex Rodriguez, for example, denied using performance-enhancing drugs in his 2007, 60 Minutes interview, but later admitted to using steroids while playing for the Texas Rangers.  His reasoning was the increased pressure to perform.  Is this an acceptable excuse for breaking the rules? Of course not, but at what point do we as a society also take responsibility?  Let’s face it. Fans want to see their team win. They want to know that the athletes being paid these enormous salaries are earning it, and owners want to know that there will be packed houses and return on investment.  But, is the pressure to hit harder, throw faster, jump higher, and perform better so strong that athletes need that extra boost to excite the crowds?  Have we created an industry where it is no longer about natural talent?  Has the desire to break records, win medals, or be the best over-taken the youthful desire to just be a part of the game and made it impossible to meet expectations?

President George W. Bush once said, “Steroids are bad for sports, they’re bad for players, they’re bad for young people who hold athletes up as role models.”  From high school, college, Olympic, and professional athletes, the use of performance-enhancing drugs has plagued the U.S. sports history. As long as there is pressure whether it is to reach a personal goal or to meet the pressures of one of the most competitive industries, there will be new drugs and new challenges to face.  The question is, will the biggest stories of the next decade be the controversial, rule-breaking scandals, or will society finally say enough and change their expectations to one of non-acceptance.  Will we say it doesn’t matter how great an athlete you are, how many games you win, records you break, or medals you earn there are no second chances, no suspensions, you simply lose?

Related Videos and Links:

Biggest Plays in Sports Biz

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/02/07/ncaa_punishes_almost_half_of_members_of_football_bowl_subdivision_for_major_rules_violations

http://espn.go.com/mlb/topics/_/page/the-steroids-era

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/02/07/alex-rodriguez-steroids/

http://reliableanswers.com/med/sports_drugs.asp

Getting to Yes-Separating the People From the Problem

Image from http://www.hobo-bonobo.co.uk/newsdesk/news-07-2007.htm

Negotiation within any industry is a tricky business but when emotions and the human aspects of the process are involved, it becomes an even more complex maze to navigate.  Roger Fisher and William Ury, authors of the international bestseller, Getting to Yes, tell us of the importance of separating people from the problem to successfully move forward in negotiations.  I recently had the opportunity to speak with Vice President of Business Development at SoilPros and Associates and former Marketing and Promotions Representative at CBS Radio, Jay Stevens, about his experience learning to separate emotions and people from the issues at hand in negotiation.

Mr. Stevens brought up an excellent point that often when negotiations come to a stalemate, it not only takes remembering that the person we are working with is just that, a person, but also creativity to move past whatever is holding things up.  He shared with me a story about a time when he was working with a client whose previous salesperson had created a negative relationship.  This was a major client that the company needed to regain trust and business with.  As Mr. Stevens pointed out, they both had objectives.  His was just to have a conversation with the client while the client wanted to do everything they could to avoid it.  After all traditional means to contact the client were attempted, Mr. Stevens found an Indiana Jones bullwhip at a flea market over the weekend.  He stopped by the client’s office, laid the bullwhip on the client’s desk and bent over.  This was a bold move, but as Mr. Stevens put it, he had a choice, push back as hard as the client was and see who would be the first to break, or find some humility and recognize he needed to just fall on the sword and make it happen.  Mr. Stevens knew the real issue was not with the company and keeping that in mind found a way, though unconventional, to open negotiations again, regaining the client’s trust and business.

I also asked Mr. Stevens what advice he had for someone who is new to negotiations. He offered that it is important to remember to not confuse business with friendship.  That you will work with some people you like and some that you don’t like but in the end, it is all about making the best deal (on both yours and the client’s part). 

“You'll do a lot of business and it will be a real pleasure, business lunches, golf outings, baseball games, you name it. You give them a good price and they give you the business....until someone comes along with better box seats, or a bigger steak, or a lower price, and you're 'good friend and business associate isn't returning your calls anymore because he's jumped to a bigger fish. You'll be frustrated over all the time and effort you put in to developing the relationship only to see it washed away over (literally) two cents. You thought they were your friend!! What happened!? Turns out they weren't really your "friend" after all. They viewed you as a "supplier" and nothing else.”

You have to remove the personal emotion involved and remember that when you are in a negotiation, you have an objective.  The person sitting across from you has an objective.  The goal is to build a relationship with people so that they see you as a ‘partner’, never just a ‘supplier’ so that ‘two cents cheaper’ isn’t worth the savings. (Jay Stevens)

http://www.ted.com/speakers/william_ury.html

http://www.soilpros.com/

http://www.cbsradio.com/index.html

Soccer: The New U.S. Quick Fix

www.syracuse.com

The success of the 2011 U.S. Women’s Soccer Team has sparked an increased interest in a sport that in other countries is as big as “American Football”.  However, no one can really pinpoint why professional soccer hasn’t caught on in popularity in the U.S. and why each year it continues to take a backseat to other major sports.  CBSSports.com columnist, Ray Ratto, answers this question with, “Soccer as an event has made it.  Soccer as a sport…not quite so much” (cbssports.com).  As a culture of quick fixes, we will invest a couple of hours to watch an event where the best of the best compete and are guaranteed to be entertained.  But, it will take more than a quick fix like the one we saw at the Women’s World Cup to gain a permanent audience.

While Major League Soccer (MLS) and Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) have had difficulty capturing the attention of the majority of the U.S., youth soccer has found a way to hold its own.  Formed in 1974 with a little over 100,00 registered players, the U.S. Youth Soccer Association reported in 2010 growth of more than 3,000,000 registered youth players between the ages of five and nineteen.  The organization’s objective, “The Game for All Kids”, is to provide a “fun, safe, and healthy game for ALL KIDS…big kids, little kids, short kids, young kids, older kids…kids who want to play for one season, kids who want to play for twenty seasons, kids who play strictly for fun, and kids who want to compete at the highest level possible” (U.S. Youth Soccer).  They offer programs ranging from regional, state, and national tournaments to a development program designed to form a national team to compete internationally.  They also introduce soccer into communities that do not yet have a league through Soccer Across America as well as TOPSoccer, a training program intended to give children with disabilities the opportunity to learn and play the sport.

The unanswered question remains, what will it take for soccer to advance to the next level in professional sports? How will the MLS and WPS turn those 3,000,000 youth soccer athletes, their parents, their family, and their friends into more than short-term fans? While 2011 may not be the year that changes it all, each year of small growth brings the U.S. that much closer to making the international sport of football more than a must-see event.

Related Articles:

http://www.cbssports.com/columns/story/15330305/face-the-facts-soccer-has-found-its-niche-in-us

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/763489-soccers-popularity-in-america-still-likely-unaffected-by-wwc-win

http://detroit.sbnation.com/2011/7/17/2275146/womens-world-cup-2011-usa-mls-detroit

Coaching For Success

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.”

Wilma Rudolph

It was a cold, snowy afternoon when their story began to unfold and the first crack of a bat was heard at the ball fields this season. With a young team, only ten players, and for most, the first year of kid pitch, the coaches knew there was a tough road ahead.  Practices started and no matter the unpredictable northeast weather, snow, rain, or shine, the team could be seen catching or hitting balls.  As games began, their dedication and determination continued.  And throughout the entire season, they practiced hard, gave it their all in every game, and never once stopped believing that they could and would win the next one.  When I asked one of the players on the team, what do you like most about playing baseball this year, his eyes lit up, he got a big smile, and he said “everything”. 

The questions many coaches in youth sports should ask themselves are what determines greatness and success and how do they guide their players to grow into not just better players but people too.  As Rutgers Youth Sports Research Council at the State University of New Jersey describes, there are two extremes when it comes to the topic of winning.  The first is the belief that winning is unimportant in youth sports and the other is that winning is the only thing. The ideal is to find a medium between these two extremes because the essence of sport is, after all, striving to win (Feigley).  When asked about what defines success, Jerry Saxion, youth baseball coach with the Southington Baseball Organization, had this to say:

“Success is about how you take losing and even more about how you act when you win.  It is not about beating the other team, it is about executing and playing the best you can.  You aren’t winning or losing to the other team, it is about winning or losing to yourselves.  If you do not play to the best of you ability and win on the scoreboard, you actually lose to yourself and the same is true if you play the best you can and lose on the scoreboard, you win. So when I say winning, it is not a score on paper or on a board, it is the accomplishment and knowing you did the best you could as a team.”

Most of all coaches of organized youth teams should keep in mind that they have the choice to be a positive or negative influence on their players.  Coaches need to remember that the lessons their players learn from them or the examples of how they act will be lessons players will remember their entire life and although players often do not understand why a coach has them run or do a certain drill now, later in life many realize the real meaning and how it not only made them a better player but a better person (Saxion). 

Inspirational Story

Bear’s Motivational Baseball:  The Father’s Eyes

http://www.infosports.com/baseball/arch/1511.htm

Earn Community Grants For Your Team Through Responsible Sports/Liberty Mutual

http://responsiblesports.com/community_grants/community_grants_closed.aspx

Resources:

http://youthsports.rutgers.edu/resources/general-interest/the-role-of-winning-in-youth-sports

Sarah Kay-Embrace Life and Inspire Others

If you have not visited the website TED.com, it is well worth the browse to find inspiring stories and “ideas worth spreading”.  Its’ two annual conferences “bring together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes or less” (TED.com).  Many of these performances are made available for free on TED.com.

One speech that I found particularly inspiring was by Sarah Kay at the March 2011 conference in Long Beach, California.  Sarah Kay is a spoken word poet from New York City who began performing at the age of 14 years old at the Bowery Poetry Club.  She has since competed in national poetry competitions, appeared on the HBO Def Poetry Jam, and performed internationally.  She is also a published author as well as founder and co-director of Project V.O.I.C.E. (Vocal Outreach Into Creative Expression), a “national movement that celebrates and inspires youth self-expression through Spoken Word Poetry” (project-voice.net).

As Kay describes, “Spoken Word Poetry is the art of performance poetry.  I tell people it involves creating poetry that just doesn’t want to sit on paper.  That something about it demands it be heard out loud or witnessed in person.”  Kay begins her talk with, If I Should Have a Daughter, an original poem that makes evident the influence that her own parents had on her outlook and passion for life.  The message she conveys is that life should be embraced and no matter what gets thrown at you and what struggles are faced, you don’t need to be discouraged. Life is a continuous lesson and the challenges you encounter make you who you are.

Later in her talk Kay divides her “spoken word journey” into three steps.  The first, was when she said, “I can do this!” The second, when she said, “I will continue”.  Finally the third was when she realized she could write poems that infused the work she was doing with her own experiences.  Kay uses poetry to work through what she doesn’t understand while at the same time using her knowledge and experiences or “backpack full of everywhere else that she’s been” (Ted.com).

In her work to entertain, educate, and inspire, Kay encourages students to let down their guard, be open to the world around them, share their stories and learn from each other’s experiences.  In this huge world where it is easy to feel alone, “spoken word teaches that if you have the ability to express yourself and the courage to present those stories and opinions, you could be rewarded with a room full of your peers or your community who will listen” (Ted.com).  Personally, Kay has reminded me that we have to continue to grow, explore, take risks, and challenge ourselves in order to truly experience life and inspire others.

http://www.ted.com/pages/about

http://www.kaysarahsera.com/

http://www.project-voice.net/

Inspiration Is Just Around the Circle

Images By Plain Dealer Photography Staff

What does a small town girl from Ohio do for fun?  After a weekend of being inspired by the sites, sounds, and most of all people of New York City, I had to remind myself that inspiration is found around any corner no matter how big or small.  Cleveland is by no means a NYC and in comparison I would describe it as having small-city charm with big potential.  Of course our Sports teams struggle and are the continuing punch line to jokes but there is a creative, artistic side of the city that is understated and often unrecognized.

Culture and arts are displayed every year, as communities and local organizations come together in an artistic presentation of talent, which I experienced for the first time in 2010.  This year marked the 22^nd annual Parade the Circle event presented by the Cleveland Museum of Art and University Circle Inc. Each year is a different theme-last year was A Door Opens-celebrating doorways as the means of cultural exchange while this year was Voices Among Voices.  As Positively Cleveland described, Parade the Circle “celebrates the diverse cultures of the citizens who comprise our city”. Handmade costumes, colorful floats, stilt walkers, puppets, dancers, and musicians entertain visitors to Wade Oval while sponsors provide activities around Circle Village such as creating a colorful instrument at the Cleveland Institute of Music booth or making shadow puppet creatures with the Cleveland Institute of Art.

 

If artistic expression is not for you, maybe you would have enjoyed a little music instead?  While the hometown Cleveland Indians were struggling against the New York Yankees, fans were going country at the Indians Music Festival held on Saturday at Progressive Field.  Featuring star of The Voice and CMA male vocalist of the year, Blake Shelton, and Grammy award-winner, Brad Paisley to name a few, the music fest had concert goers remembering why Cleveland Rocks! 

http://www.universitycircle.org/userfiles/file/Parade2011_booklet_web.pdf

http://www.universitycircle.org/uci.aspx?page=122

http://positivelycleveland.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/what’s-in-store-for-parade-the-circle-2010/

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/06/cleveland_indians_first_music.html

Developing Your Professional Network in Public Relations

Having a strong interest in public, media, and community relations, I have been researching some of the best professional associations in the industry.   At the top of the list and a leader in the public relations field is the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).  Chartered in 1947, PRSA is the world’s largest organization for public relations professionals and currently has more than 21,000 members.  (PRSA.org)

PRSA offers three major benefits: Learning, Intelligence, and Networking.  With a section dedicated to Entertainment and Sports, PRSA is a valuable resource offering “great opportunities to connect with peers who understand your issues and are willing to share solutions”.  (PRSA.org) PRSA offers networking opportunities through industry conferences and professional development programs and they have the only industry accreditation program (Accredited in Public Relations Program).  In addition, PRSA keeps you up to date on industry information through daily news updates and blogs as well as a career advice library and job mentoring.  PRSA’s job center also allows job seekers to post resumes, search jobs, and view average salary information.

There are several membership options with annual dues ranging from $60 for current graduate students to $225 for professionals with two or more years of public relations experience.  While much of the information online can be accessed without a membership, there are benefits such as free professional development, preferred pricing on seminars, workshops, and boot camps, and a database of case studies and other various research available only to members.

Colleges and students also have the option of joining the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA).  The PRSSA is made up of over 10,000 students and advisers in 300 plus Chapters in the United States and Argentina.  (PRSSA.org) PRSSA helps students to launch their career in Public Relations through connections to internships, competitions, scholarships, news, and social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.  Also included in the PRSSA membership is access to the PRSA job center.     

PRSA and PRSSA have proven to be valuable resources to professionals of all levels.  While I have not yet become a member, I am considering suggesting that my university start a chapter.  Doug Hicks, Senior Vice President of Marketing Communications for D.C. United, spoke to students at the PRSSA 2010 National Conference Professional Development session, “Creating a Career in Entertainment and Sports”.  He said it best when he advised, “Find something you love and find out how to make it your career.”  If public relations and communication is your passion, joining PRSA and PRSSA is a good start to developing your professional network.

http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/

http://www.prssa.org/about/

http://www.prssa.org/forum/article.aspx?issueid=176&id=699&utm_campaign=PRSASearch&utm_source=PRSAWebsite&utm_medium=SSearch&utm_term=Sports