This One Works

An excerpt from Buzz Bizzinger's article   

"If it wasn't for Harlem Lacrosse, I would have been on the streets," said Jordany. "I probably would have been in a gang."

Ever since I wrote the book Friday Night Lights twenty-five years ago, I have immersed myself in the culture of sports in schools.

I have witnessed many programs and written about many more. I have been publicly outspoken about the winning-at-all cost mentality in which lip service is paid to academics and personal growth when it should be the other way around. I have become concerned about the professionalism of sports at younger and younger ages in which the lifelong lessons that sports uniquely provides-discipline, dedication, advancement through the competition and teamwork-take a back seat to the temporary won-lost record.

Then I spent a recent week in July observing the non-profit organization Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership in action. The concern I had about sports in schools, not the sports programs themselves but the misplaced emphasis, turned to excitement. To say I was blown away is an understatement.

Before we go any further full disclosure:

I was approached by the Dick's Sporting Goods Foundation to do a piece on Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership. I did research on the program as well as speak to individuals intimately familiar with it before saying yes. Every expectation was exceeded. Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership is one of the programs being funded by the foundation's multi-year $25 million commitment to supporting youth sports programs around the country. The foundation should be applauded.

Harlem Lacrosse is the single best school-based co-curricular program I have ever seen.

And note that I have left out the word "sports" before "program." Because it is not a sports program. Program Director Joel Censer calls Harlem Lacrosse and Leadership an "intervention" program in which lacrosse is used as the carrot to get kids to stay in school and become motivated far beyond the playing field. It is using the power of sports to unleash the potential of kids, many of whom, like Jordany, live in single parent households, some of who come from lower middle class backgrounds and some of whom live in shelters. It causes them to see a world they never knew existed but also to become a part of it. "If they don't like lacrosse and don't like coming to practice, then how are you going to have the intervention?" Censer notes.

- See more at: http://www.sportsmatter.org/article.html#sthash.hEtc3iQ5.dpuf