Digger Phelps coaching the game of life

There's a great article in the sports section of today's Chicago Tribune talking about Digger Phelps' involvement in a mentoring program in South Bend. Looks like the famous Notre Dame former basketball coach is trying to recruit 500 new mentors.

I think it's great that this story was given so much space in the sports section. I think it's great that the Coach is doing what he's doing. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find a link to the article on the Tribune web site.

I just wish there were a consistent effort of coaches all over the country to not only recruit volunteers to tutor/mentor, but to build the infrastructure and team of community leaders needed to support mentor involvement in the lives of youth for multiple years and in all the places such programs are needed.

I've posted articles showing roles athletes could be taking.

I've pointed to sports concept articles written between 2008 and 2011 while I was President of Cabrini Connections, showing how a tutor/mentor program is like a sports team. The team on the field is only as good as the infrastructure supporting the team.

In this wiki page I further describe this coaching strategy.

Here's a video created by one of my interns to communicate this concept.

I hope writers will keep drawing attention to coaches and athletes who are directly involved with youth. However, I also hope they will begin to point to the coaching and team building that needs to be done so great tutor/mentor teams are operating in thousands of neighborhoods throughout the country.

Imagine what types of videos might be created if high profile coaches and athletes were creating them instead of college interns with only two or three weeks of time to work on the project?

Perhaps in a future Olympics or Super Bowl coaches could be given recognition for this work?