On Monday, Februrary 4, 2008, the Mid-Atlantic Recreation and Sports Alliance will hold it’s annual GoodSports Awards ceremony during the General Assembly at the Maryland State House, in Annapolis.
The Mid-Atlantic Recreation and Parks’ Sports Alliance is a consortium of Recreation and Parks Departments, official’s organizations and youth sports associations in the Mid-Atlantic region.
The mission of the Alliance is to develop and communicate a consistent message that organizations and their players, coaches and spectators will be held accountable to a code of conduct that promotes GoodSports and keeps recreational competitive and non-competitive sporting activities in proper perspective.
The purpose of this event is to recognize both young athletes and coaches that have displayed a consistent commitment to GoodSports during their participation in athletics. Each member organization designated one adult and one student for the GoodSports award.
David Bledsoe was graduated in 1976 from Christ Church Episcopal School in Greenville, S.C., where he played varsity football, basketball and baseball. He was graduated from Princeton University in 1980, where he played tight end for the sprint football team, earning three varsity letters, and was an assistant coach for the women’s softball team.
From 1980 to 1982, he taught Latin and coached high school football and basketball in Newport News, Virginia. He was graduated from law school in 1986, and is a lawyer in private practice.
He and his three children, Grace, Elaine, and Alex reside in Alexandria, Virginia, where he has lived since 1992. He has coached numerous sports in the City of Alexandria Recreation Department’s leagues since 2000, including 10U girls’ softball, 12U girl’s softball, T-ball, coach-pitch baseball, Little League baseball, and 10U and 12U boys’ basketball.
“I absolutely love coaching kids: its fun to see that light bulb go off in their heads when they finally understand some aspect of the game. My philosophy of coaching youth sports is to try to acquaint the kids with the notion that it is a LOT more fun to score a bucket or catch a fly ball in real life than it is on Xbox or Playstation. I also view sports as a metaphor for life: learning how to give extra effort, how to win graciously, how to lose graciously, how to be a good teammate, how to deal with failures and successes are all lessons learned on the playing or practice field that are going to be useful in later life. A major emphasis of mine is sportsmanship, which is frequently a struggle when you are dealing with 10 year olds and some poor role models in professional sports.”
His hobbies are following the travails of the Atlanta Braves and driving to youth games
Julian Brickey played football this season for the Alexandria Titans Youth football
program, this was his second year with the program. Ray Williams, head coach of
his football team, stated that Julian had the best sportsmanship of any kid he had
coached in his twenty years of coaching football. Julian always demonstrated good
sportsmanship in every practice and game. This year his 110 pound team only won one game, but after every game Julian was the first player to encourage his teammates and to remind them as they shook hands with the opposing team to show good sportsmanship. Julian was a great leader on a team that included a lot of first year players. He shows great respect for his teammates, coaches, opposing players and officials. His teammates looked to him to be a role model on and off the field. Julian also plays lacrosse and will play in the spring on the T.C. Williams High School junior varsity team. He is an “A” student and is very involved in school and community activities. He spends a lot of his free time working with mentally disabled adults.
Mac Slover, Youth Sports Supervisor for the Alexandria Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities stated ” Good Sportsmanship is one of the most important focuses of our program. It is refreshing to know our players and coaches work hard to demonstrate good sportsmanship on and off the field.
This is especially important in this day and age when the media focuses on professional athletics fighting, taunting fans and opponents with obscene gestures, and silly dances in the end zone.
The event will start at 6:45pm with a reception in Room 180 of the House Office Building, immediately followed by the ceremonies in the House chamber. Delegates representing participating jurisdictions will be on hand to assist with the award presentations.
The event is co-sponsored by Maryland Speaker of the House, Mike Busch.
For Information Call: Youth Sports Office
January 29, 2008
703.838.4345