{"id":428,"date":"2019-03-19T09:23:58","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T17:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/?p=428"},"modified":"2019-03-19T09:34:16","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T17:34:16","slug":"march-madness-with-character-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2019\/03\/19\/march-madness-with-character-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness – With Character Comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Love never fails. Characte\"\"<\/a>r never quits. And with patience and persistence, dreams do come true<\/i>.” \u2013 \u00a0\u201cPistol\u201d Pete Maravich, LSU and three NBA teams (Perhaps the greatest creative offensive talent in history<\/p>\n

As many of you know, this is March Madness month. \u00a0The term is believed to have been created by Henry V. Potter, assistant executive secretary of the Illinois High School Association in 1939\u2014the year of the first NCAA men\u2019s basketball tournament\u2014Oregon beat OSU 46-33.<\/p>\n

For the first 12 years of the men\u2019s tournament only eight teams participated. \u00a0In 2001, a 65-team tournament format was created. \u00a0Credit \u00a0television\u2014it put the tournament on the national map. \u00a0Now the tournament breaks into four regions of 16 teams. \u00a0The winning teams from those regions comprise the Final Four.<\/p>\n

The NCAA held its first women\u2019s basketball tournament in 1982. \u00a0The women\u2019s tournament started with 32 teams, expanding to 64 teams in the 1994 season. \u00a0Today, the women\u2019s format echoes the men\u2019s. The women\u2019s final championship game is played the day after the men\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

The tournament is a\u201cgamblers paradise.\u201d \u00a0According to the American Gaming Association, fans wagered more than $2 billion on March Madness Brackets<\/a> for the 2015 tournament. \u00a0One stat-group estimated that last year American companies lost about $1.9 billion in wages<\/a> paid to unproductive workers spending company time on betting pool priorities. MM generates big bucks for gamblers, businesses, and athletic programs.<\/p>\n

The excitement is on the court watching the talented young women and men give their all for their school.<\/p>\n

\u201cA team isn\u2019t a bunch of kids out to win. \u00a0A team is something you belong to, something you feel, something you have to earn.\u201d<\/i> \u00a0\u2013 Gordon Bombay, The Mighty Ducks<\/p>\n

A question generally asked is \u201cdoes participation in sports build character?\u201d \u00a0As I look at it, it\u2019s a \u201cjump ball\u201d or a \u201ctie\u201d game\u2014a debatable issue. \u00a0I\u2019m on the \u201cit does\u201d side. \u00a0Heywood Hale Broun (American author, sportswriter, commentator) noted: \u201dSports do not build character, they reveal it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second question that usually follows is \u201cwhat do you mean by character?\u201d \u00a0This question suggests that those on either side should, at the very least, be on the same page in defining what character is and what it means.<\/p>\n

\u201cA person of character,\u201d writes Lickona and Davidson (Smart and Good High Schools-Integrating Excellence and Ethics for Success School, Work, and Beyond), \u201cembodies both performance and moral character.\u201d<\/p>\n

They note that \u201cperformance character\u201d is not the same as performance (an outcome), but has certain qualities needed for the further development of one\u2019s potential toward excellence, such as, effort, diligence, perseverance, and self-discipline. \u00a0\u201cMoral character is relational, encompassing such qualities as integrity, justice, caring and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have been using this definition. \u00a0Character is about behavior, about how one acts. It is about the choices that one makes. \u00a0It is about relationships (empathy, compassion, fairness). \u00a0It is about virtues (respect, responsibility, honesty) that inform the choices one makes. \u00a0Character, in sports, is about providing student-athletes opportunities to study, clarify, reflect, decide, practice and act on such virtues as respect, responsibility, perseverance, honesty, empathy, grit, discipline, loyalty, perseverance, teamwork, sportsmanship, and leadership. \u00a0For student-athletes it is about sacrifice, commitment, and competition.<\/p>\n

The game winner: \u00a0\u201cGood character on and off the field or court should be nurtured; bad character should be corrected.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Many believe that the purpose of sports in schools, at all levels, should be to help participants learn the lessons of good character.<\/p>\n

My \u201cThree-pointer\u201d:<\/b><\/p>\n

1) “The best way to promote what is best about sports with young athletes is to engage in these kinds of practical activities that encourage sportsmanship and other virtues, so that the old adage that \u201csports build character\u201d is not just a clich\u00e9, but an accurate description of what happens on the field.”<\/em> \u00a0\u2013 Craig Clifford and Randolph Feezell, Sports and Character<\/p>\n

2) “Well-organized sport character education can provide powerful contexts for the teaching and learning of good moral habits. \u00a0For character education programs to succeed, athletes need both thinking and reasoning programs, role models, a supportive environment, and the strong moral\/philosophical commitment of community members, parents, coaches, teachers, students, boosters, and the media.”<\/em> \u00a0\u2013 Jennifer Beller, ERICDIGEST, ORG.-ED477729 \u2013 2002<\/p>\n

3) “A sport experience can build character, but only if the environment is structured, and a stated and planned goal is to develop character. This kind of environment must include all individuals (coaches, administrations, parents, participants, etc.) who are stakeholders in the sport setting.”<\/em> \u00a0 \u00a0\u2013 Joseph Doty, Journal of College and Character<\/p>\n

Let the games begin and the low seeds win!<\/b><\/p>\n

Overtime: <\/b>Ten years ago my colleague CJ Moloney and I created a course titled \u201cCharacter and Athletics\u201d which is offered every semester. \u00a0In the course, students examine their personal character development through:<\/p>\n