Our next National Double-Goal Coach® Award Winner feature is Chad Sturgis, Basketball Coach at the A.R. Gould School at the Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland, Maine.
“Coaching high school basketball for boys who have been incarcerated, Sturgis helps them learn lessons about how win to on and off the court” said Beth O’Neill Maloney, Executive Director of Positive Coaching Alliance – New England, the local Chapter of Positive Coaching Alliance. “By creating a positive, character-building youth sports experience and serving as a Double-Goal Coach®, Sturgis helps these young men develop not only into better athletes, but also, and more importantly, into better people.”
Ten years ago, Sturgis volunteered his time to coach basketball for boys incarcerated at Long Creek and attending A.R. Gould High School. When Kim Deering, A.R. Gould’s Athletic Director, saw the positive impact Sturgis and basketball were having on the boys, she started a high school team and asked Sturgis to coach. Sturgis was the right person for the job. Deering says “the players want to give maximum effort and learn because Chad [Sturgis] acknowledges each player’s assets and how they contribute to the team.” Coaching boys who have run away, faced drug addiction, or been convicted of a range of crimes, Deering says Sturgis “connects the lessons learned from being on the team to their personal lives to become positive and productive members of the community.”
This year, Sturgis’ team made it to the Regional Championships. Down 30 points in that game, Sturgis called a timeout and, instead of talking strategy, he praised them, told them how proud he was of their resiliency and hard work, and had them look at the fans there cheering for them, win or lose. Sturgis told his team that “you have defied the odds, just making it to this championship game proves that you are capable of great things.”
This, Maloney says, shows that “Chad Sturgis is a perfect example of the simple proposition that Sports Teach.”
Congratulations, Coach Sturgis!
