In 2006 a friend in Washington, D.C. called and said, “I’m bringing 20 soccer coaches over to the U.S. from Ethiopia for coaching education and leadership development. How would you like to host them at VCU for a week?” Being the naive adventure lover I was, I said yes. And what I thought at the time would be a cool one-off experience has turned into two decades of work dedicated to international sport for development (SFD). To be honest, at the time I wouldn’t even have been able to define SFD, and certainly didn’t view it in direct connection to my teaching or scholarship. To say that phone call in 2006 changed my life would be an overstatement, but to summarize it as a ‘cool one-off experience’ would vastly devalue the work that has become so central to the VCU Center for Sport Leadership.
I suppose, having been an athlete throughout my life, I knew sport was a powerful tool. But SFD, or the intentional use of sport for social change, takes this tool and turns it into a superpower. And for me, seeing was believing. A reciprocal trip to Ethiopia in 2007 was my first experience vastly outside my comfort zone; everything was different from what I knew – the language, the culture, the food, the environment. What was familiar was my beloved sport of football. I recall passing out hackey sacks to the children we’d pass on the way to the field. Their skepticism toward me on day one was completely washed away by day two when they so proudly returned to the field, hackey sack in hand, and we played. Suddenly the unfamiliar became familiar, and strangers became friends. And what an amazing opportunity that opened for us to learn about one another and work collectively toward positive social change.
To be candid, though this experience opened my eyes to the many ways we can use sport for positive social change, it was relatively SFD-light. We relied a lot on the accidental impacts of sport. You know, things like “if you bring people from different cultures together on the field, they will become more inclusive,” or “if you play team sports, you’ll learn important life skills like teamwork and leadership.” Sometimes that still works, but often it doesn’t. And almost two decades in, having collaborated with partners in over twenty countries, we’ve prioritized intentionality. Yes, we might see some accidental impacts of sport, but if we are creating our programming intentionally focused on social change, if we are working with partners who are intentional about how they do their work and what the needs of their community are, and if we are intentionally selecting and training participants, can you image what the long-term impacts may be? I can because I’ve seen them.
As the Center for Sport Leadership celebrates its 25th anniversary this summer, I see this intentionality in so many of our students before they even arrive on campus. Our up-and-coming leaders in sport want to make positive changes in their communities, maybe moreso than any previous generation. So we don’t even find ourselves needing to sell students on the importance of SFD any longer; now we can focus on the intentionality of it for greater impact.
I used to think of SFD as my primary research line, and one I talked about a little bit in class. It was sort of a dashed-line on the side of my CV while I focused on teaching students basic foundations of the business of sport. And let’s face it, we reside in a Business School, so things like finance and marketing are fundamental to our students’ education. But over time I’ve seen that, as important, is understanding how powerful sport is, and what a responsibility we have to use it for good. In both the simplest and most sophisticated ways, sport is changing society, and our program believes that if we can help our students better understand how to use this platform of sport for positive social change, we are all lifted up. The intentionality we use to create strong SFD programs and platforms is no different than the intentionality required to become a great leader. Everyone possesses it, our goal is to bring it to life.
So now, instead of receiving that call, I often get to be the one to make it. Whether those who answer the call adopt SFD as their life’s work isn’t the point. The goal is to illustrate the power of sport to all and provide a model of how to be intentional, thoughtful and respectful in creating programming. I am more than hopeful the next generation of leaders in sport will rise to this challenge.