Lists offer lessons in life that sports can teach so well

Just like Santa Claus, Jim Thompson is constantly compiling an annual list of who's been naughty and who's been nice. Unlike Santa, he publishes his findings on a website, substituting public shame -- and public praise -- for lumps of coal and presents under the tree.

Thompson is executive director of Positive Coaching Alliance, a California-based organization dedicated to making youth sports a fun and life-enriching experience. Each year, he assembles lists of the top 10 and bottom 10 moments in sports. The bottom-10 list, typically populated by gun-toting parents and coaches who need anger-management training, tends to get more attention for its shock quotient. But the top 10 -- particularly in 2008 -- is far more valuable to a sports culture in need of reassessment.

The 2008 shining stars include Mallory Holtman and Liz Wallace, who carried an injured opponent around the bases in a college softball game. Taylor Rochestie gave up a basketball scholarship at Washington State so his coach could give it to someone who needed it more. Michael Miragliuolo is a high school cross-country coach whose ranked teams include 205 kids, including some with disabilities.

"There were many contenders for the bottom 10, but I think they were less exceptionally bad than in the previous year," said Thompson, a North Dakota native who attended Macalester College. "And the top 10 were wonderful.

"I think there's a growing awareness of the importance of honoring the game. There's something going on in sports beyond the immediate competition, the idea of who wins and who loses. Sports have the ability to inspire us, to elevate us, to enhance our appreciation of life. That's why we created this movement, to make sports the ennobling experience it should be."

The win-at-all-costs crowd still gives Thompson plenty of fodder for his bottom-10 list, providing teachable moments of the repugnant kind. Former major league pitcher Mitch (Wild Thing) Williams cursed out officials at his daughter's fifth-grade Catholic league basketball game. An Olympic taekwondo athlete kicked an official in the face at the Beijing Games. A dad aimed a gun at the husband of his daughter's coach at a soccer game for 7- and 8-year-olds.

The PCA website (www.positivecoach.org) includes video of many of those incidents. Thompson said that even in an age when YouTube and cell-phone video create instant infamy, the high emotions inherent in sports negate the shame factor.

Thompson called that "Mallory Moment" the signature act of the year in sports. "That really captured people's attention," he said. "Sooner or later, kids who compete in sports are going to have that kind of opportunity, where they can choose to elevate the game or not. We want to plant that idea in their heads that when they're faced with that situation, they could have a Mallory Moment."

That's what Thompson hopes to do with his growing movement. With support from prominent coaches and athletes -- including Phil Jackson, Herm Edwards, Nadia Comaneci and Bill Bradley -- he advocates the idea of "double-goal" coaches and parents, who help kids become skilled, winning athletes while teaching life lessons that sports communicate so well.

His latest book, "Positive Sports Parenting," urges moms and dads to focus on how sports can enhance parent-child relationships and strengthen their child's character. As 2009 sets sail in a stormy, tense economy, Thompson thinks that message could resonate more deeply.

"The economic climate presents an opportunity for people to get closer, to cooperate," he said. "A lot of problems in youth sports would go away if we let the kids worry about winning. The adults have the more important job of helping kids learn how to be happy, successful, contributing members of society."