The United States Sports Academy recently held its 33^rd Annual Awards of Sport program, a celebration of sport and art and “A Tribute to the Artist and the Athlete.”

The Academy’s Awards of Sport honor those who have made significant contributions to sport in categories as diverse as the artist and the athlete. The awards honor exemplary achievement in coaching, all-around athletic performance, courage, humanitarian activity, fitness, and media, among others. The Academy’s American Sport Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA) annually recognizes these men and women through its Sport Artist of the Year, Honorary Doctorates, Medallion Series, Distinguished Service Awards, Outstanding Athletes and Alumni of the Year awards.

A highlight of the event held on the Academy’s Daphne campus was the unveiling and donation to ASAMA’s permanent art collection works by the Academy’s 2017 Sport Artists of the Year: sculptor Richard Watkins of Atlanta, Ga., and painter William Williams of Battle Creek, Mich.

Watkins’ award-winning sculptures are known for capturing the energy, dynamics and balance of amazing athletes at that single moment of intense action: the slam dunk, the long pass into the end zone, the double play. He exaggerates the physical proportions to an extreme, giving them incredible action and an engaging quality.  His donation, a basketball piece entitled “Slam Dunk,” is now on display at ASAMA.

Williams is nationally known for his classical artistic approach to representing the glory of sports through his realistic still life oil paintings. His work is in the permanent collections of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame, the Commissioner of the National Basketball Association, the New York Yankees, and many others. His donation now on display at ASAMA is a still life entitled “Satchel’s Monarchs” which depicts artifacts related to legendary baseball player Satchel Paige.

A show featuring works from both artists is now on display at ASAMA in the Dr. Thomas P. Rosandich Gallery, which is named after the Academy’s Founding President.

Among other key honors at the event, Dr. Dave Shrock was named the Academy’s Alumnus of the Year.  A national leader in track and field and an Academy National Faculty member, Shrock earned a Doctor of Education degree in Sports Management from the Academy in 2009.  He has taught sports marketing and sports leadership for the Academy’s international sport education programs in Thailand, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

A resident of Modesto, Calif., Shrock serves in numerous USA Track and Field (USATF) leadership roles including president of the nation’s largest association, the Pacific Association; Coaching Committee chair; and as chair of the National Associations Committee.  In 2017 the USATF presented him the McGill Legacy Coaching Award in recognition of his “passion and leadership nationally for the promotion of USATF coaching education.” Shrock has more than 40 years of track and field coaching experience, including 20 years as a college coach. His association work includes oversight of several national championships and hosting Olympic trials.

“I accept this award on behalf of the alumni of the United States Sports Academy because we are the ones who utilize the knowledge, passion and experience gained from this great institution to continue to work for the betterment of sport,” Shrock said.

Also in attendance was the winner of the Dr. Ernst Jokl Sports Medicine Award, Dr. Kenneth Cameron, who is director of Orthopaedic Research at Keller Army Community Hospital in West Point, N.Y.  Cameron’s primary research interests are in the areas of injury prevention, musculoskeletal injury and disease epidemiology, and outcomes associated with the treatment of these injuries, specifically in physically active and military populations.

Receiving the Dwight David Eisenhower Fitness Award at the event was master personal trainer Fairfax Hackley, who won 12 class titles in bodybuilding and later served as a judge and as director of the Mr. America contest.  He spent more than 20 years in the sport, winning the International Federation of Body Building and Fitness (IFBB) Silver and Gold Awards for Excellence in Administration. He has trained numerous celebrities and athletes, including boxers and mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters.  He has worked closely with the Arnold (Schwarzenegger) Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio.  The resident of Falls Church, Va., is a member of the International Sports Hall of Fame, serving on its advisory board.

Here is a complete list of the 2017 Academy’s Awards of Sport honorees:

International Honorary Doctorate: His Excellency Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba, President, Republic of Gabon.

National Honorary Doctorate: Sunil Gulati, President, U.S. Soccer Federation.

Sport Artist of the Year, Painter: William Williams, Battle Creek, Mich.

Sport Artist of the Year, Sculptor:  Richard Watkins, Atlanta, Ga.

Alumnus of the Year: Dr. Dave Shrock (Ed.D, Sports Management, 2009), USA Track & Field leader and Academy National Faculty member.

Eagle Award: Dr. René Fasel, D.M.D., President, International Ice Hockey Federation; International Olympic Committee Executive Board and Chair of the Association of International Olympic Sports Federations.

Amos Alonzo Stagg Coaching Award: Mike Holloway, Head Track and Field Coach, University of Florida.

Carl Maddox Sports Management Award: Don Garber, Commissioner, Major League Soccer, and CEO, Soccer United Marketing.

Vivian Stringer Coaching Award: Patty Gasso, Head Softball Coach, the University of Oklahoma.

Dr. Ernst Jokl Sports Medicine Award: Dr. Kenneth Cameron, Director of Orthopaedic Research, Keller Army Community Hospital in West Point, N.Y.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Fitness Award:  Fairfax Hackley, Master Personal Trainer and bodybuilder.

Jackie Robinson Humanitarian Award: Justin James “J.J.” Watt, National Football League player and leader of Hurricane Harvey relief effort.

Jim Thorpe All-Around Athlete Award: Nafissatou Thiam, World Champion heptathlete, Belgium.

Juan Antonio Samaranch IOC Disabled Athlete Award: Oksana Masters, Paralympic Cyclist and World Para Nordic Skiing Champion.

Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias Courage Award: Anthony Rizzo, Major League Baseball player, cancer survivor, and founder of the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation.

Ronald Reagan Media Award: Dave Finocchio, founder, former CEO and Chief Content Officer of The Bleacher Report.

Theodore Roosevelt Meritorious Achievement Award: Jon Runyan, former NFL player, former U.S. Congressman, and current Vice President of Policy and Rules Administration for the NFL.

The Academy’s Male and Female Athletes of the Year will be selected in January with the input of international online balloting.

To view a video of the complete 2017 Awards of Sport program, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAknCmzB29k.

Founded in 1984, ASAMA is dedicated to the preservation of sports art, history, and literature. The ASAMA collection is composed of more than 1,800 works of sport art across a variety of media, including paintings, sculptures, assemblages, prints and photographs. The museum is open free to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. For more information, go to www.asama.org.

The United States Sports Academy is an independent, non-profit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and world with programs in instruction, research and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports.

The Academy is based in Daphne, Ala.  For more information, call (251) 626-3303 or visit www.ussa.edu.

By the United States Sports Academy

Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi and American gymnast Morgan Hurd have been named the United States Sports Academy’s Male and Female Athletes of the Month for October.

Messi’s hat trick led Argentina to a 3-1 win over Ecuador on 10 October 2017 and qualified the team for the 2018 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup in Russia. After Argentina fell behind by one point early in the match, Messi scored twice in the first half and iced the win with a goal in the second half.

Hurd was crowned the new women’s all-around world champion at the 2017 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Montreal on 7 October 2017. Hurd scored a total of 55.232 points on vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor routine to capture the title. The following day, Hurd took silver on the balance beam to close out the World Championships. She also earned the United States Olympic Committee’s Best of October women’s award.

The second place finisher on the men’s side was American football player J.T. Barrett and third place went to Swiss tennis player Roger Federer.

Barrett, the Ohio State quarterback, completed 33 of 39 passes for 328 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Buckeyes to a 39-38 come-from-behind win against second-ranked Penn State on 28 October 2017. Barrett completed 13 of 13 passes for 170 yards and three scores in the fourth quarter to lead the Buckeyes back from a 35-20 deficit. Barrett passed for 914 yards, 12 touchdowns and zero interceptions and rushed for 202 yards and three touchdowns in October.

Federer defeated top-ranked Rafael Nadal of Spain 6-4, 6-3 to capture the Shanghai Masters title on 15 October 2017 in China.  Federer also won the Swiss Indoors Basel title on 29 October, defeating Juan Martin del Potro 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3 to clinch his seventh ATP World Tour title of the season. This was Federer’s 95^th career title, which moved him into second place, ahead of the Czech Republic’s Ivan Lendl, on the Open era list.

The second place finisher on the women’s side was American golfer Cristie Kerr and third place went to Kenyan runner Joyciline Jepkosgei.

Kerr shot a 15-under-par 269 to win the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia title on 29 October 2017. Kerr hit a 30-foot birdie on the final hole, one of 20 birdies she made in the final three rounds at the tournament in Kuala Lumpur. It was her second win of 2017.

Jepkosgei broke the world half marathon record with a time of 1:04:51 on 22 October 2017 in the Valencia Trinidad Alfonso Half Marathon – an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Gold Label road race in Valencia, Spain.

Each month, the public is invited to participate in the Academy’s worldwide Athlete of the Month program by nominating athletes and then voting online during the first week of every month. The online votes are used to guide the Academy selection committee in choosing the male and female monthly winners, who then become eligible for selection to the prestigious Athlete of the Year ballot. A worldwide public vote on the annual ballot is used to guide the committee in making the final selection.

The Athlete of the Year Award is part of the United States Sports Academy’s Awards of Sport program, which each year serves as “A Tribute to the Artist and the Athlete.”  The Academy presents the awards to pay tribute to those who have made significant contributions to sport, in categories as diverse as the artist and the athlete in several different arenas of sport.

The awards honor exemplary achievement in coaching, all-around athletic performance, courage, humanitarian activity, fitness and media, among others. The Academy’s American Sport Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA) annually recognizes these men and women through its Sport Artist of the Year, Honorary Doctorates, Medallion Series, Distinguished Service Awards, Outstanding Athletes, and Alumni of the Year awards. This is the 33^rd year of the Academy’s Awards of Sport program.

The United States Sports Academy is an independent, non-profit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and world with programs in instruction, research and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports.

Founded in 1984, ASAMA is dedicated to the preservation of sports art, history, and literature. The ASAMA collection is composed of more than 1,800 works of sport art across a variety of media, including paintings, sculptures, assemblages, prints and photographs. The museum is open free to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. For more information, go to www.asama.org.

The Academy is based in Daphne, Ala.  For more information, call (251) 626-3303 or visit www.ussa.edu.

By Eric Mann

Eric Mann is the communications assistant at the United States Sports Academy. 

The United States Sports Academy recently expanded its commitment to global sport education through a successful tour of nations by President and CEO Dr. T.J. Rosandich that included meetings and new cooperative agreements with international sport leaders.

Rosandich, who has been central to the Academy’s international programs for more than 30 years, made a month-long journey that included discussions with key leaders in sport, education and government in China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.

Republic of the Philippines

The Academy’s long history of supporting sport development in the Philippines took a major step forward as Rosandich signed a sports Protocol of Cooperation with Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chair William “Butch” Ramirez through which the Academy will work with the country to strengthen its sports programs at all levels, from youth and grassroots sports programs to the elite sport level. Under the agreement signed in Davao City, the Academy will work with governmental agencies and other organizations endorsed by the PSC to contribute to the national sports development program.

“The signing of this protocol is of particular significance to the United States Sports Academy as we have had a long history with the Philippines,” Rosandich said.

“We taught our international certification programs in sports management and sports coaching in the island nation in the early 1980s, so to return today for this program is meaningful indeed.

“The Academy is looking forward to playing a role in the development of the national sport effort in the Philippines through our programs in education, research and service. Having taught sports education programs to over 65 countries, this partnership with the Philippines is a continuation of our mission.”

“We when we came to the Philippine Sports Commission we launched the Philippine Sports Institute (PSI) with the hope of establishing and strengthening elite sports and grassroots sports programs,” Ramirez told the Davao City Sun-Star newspaper.

“This partnership with the United States Sports Academy is hoped to achieve that.”

The Academy will provide a wide range of services including an assessment of sport education and staffing in the country, as well as educational services to train coaches and sports administrators to achieve the nation’s sport goals. The Academy will work with the Southeast Asian nation on such topics as human performance research, sports medicine, and the development of international caliber athletes.

The agreement will also involve collaboration on sports cultural exchanges including Olympism, youth activities, sport art, literature, history, and many others.

The agreement came as Rosandich was in Davao City as keynote speaker for the 2017 International Conference on Physical Education, Recreation, Fitness and Sports Science, where he discussed the role of education in sports development with an international audience of leaders in sport.

United Arab Emirates

The Academy president visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the Academy continues to play a key role in the enhancement of football (soccer) under a cooperative effort to train football administrators through a Football Club Operators License Program with the UAE Football Association (UAEFA).

Rosandich gave a presentation entitled “A Role for Sports Education in National Football Programs” at the Conference on Innovation in Football, Education and Governance organized by the UAEFA. The talk stressed the importance of academic licensing programs and accreditation in sports education to improve the quality of coaching and administration in sports. He also met with officials in the program on topics including enhancements of the training program.

The collaboration between the Academy and UAEFA led to the development of the Football Association Academy for Sports Management (FAASM), known as the Football Association Academy (FAA), which began operations in 2016. This effort includes football certification programs that offer professional preparation and training designed to meet the needs of coaches, athletes, administrators and operatives at all levels in the UAE football club system.

The Academy is providing the faculty and instruction for the program. The curriculum includes subjects such as sports administration, sports marketing, sports media, and facility and event management. Each subject has three levels of instruction through which successful students receive in succession a “C”, “B” and “A” level license.

The ultimate objective of the program is to enhance football in the UAE by improving the quality of the sport’s management.

People’s Republic of China 

In the People’s Republic of China, the Academy president met with sports leaders in Beijing and Shanghai, where key discussion themes included possible new initiatives to improve the physical fitness and social development of China’s youth, and how the Academy might be involved in those efforts. These included an agreement in principle for the Academy to be involved in development of sports camps based on its experience in this field.

Discussion also focused on China’s possible development of a school of sport and the role the Academy might play to assist in its unique role as American’s only freestanding sport university.

In Shanghai, discussions focused on the 2018 rendition of the International Diploma in Sports Coaching (IDSC) program. Conducted by the Academy and the Shanghai Administration of Sports (SAS), the program provides classroom instruction, experiential learning, and educational travel to the United States for former elite athletes in the Shanghai area to prepare them for careers in coaching and athletic related fields.

Malaysia

Discussions in the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia focused on the recent Academy program that is contributing to the training of the people responsible for improving the health and life skills of youth of the nation.

Launched in 2012, The Academy’s International Diploma in Physical Education and Sports Coaching (IDPESC) program has trained thousands of teachers in critical physical education and coaching skills. The latest edition of this program will commence in Malaysia on 13 November. Concurrently, the Academy’s “Train the Trainers” (TOT) program assists the Malaysian government in its National Service Training Program (NSTP) is being staged there.  The Academy’s instructors are responsible for training the instructors who in turn teach sport and physical fitness skills to more than 250,000 Malaysian youth each year as part of the country’s NSTP curriculum.

The partnership is one of many collaborations between the Academy and Malaysia dating back to the early 1980s.  The Academy is exploring additional initiatives with the country, including a program to contribute to the physical fitness of the nation’s police force.

Switzerland

The Academy president met with several key international sport and education leaders in Switzerland to discuss sport education initiatives. The Academy continued talks with the European University Business School regarding sport education collaborations. Discussions also continued with the International Labor Organization (ILO), whose interest in sport lies in its potential to elevate humanity through helping the United Nations achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Academy will continue to build on both of these cooperative educational efforts.

Thailand

Though not a part of the current trip, the Academy’s longtime relationship with Thailand to educate sports leaders in that country is continuing this coming year as the Academy is conducting its International Certification in Sports Coaching (ICSC) and International Certification in Sports Management (ICSM) programs in Bangkok, programs that have been in place for more than a decade.

Both certification programs prepare participants for leadership roles in sport. The ICSC program includes a wide range of coaching and related administrative skills, while the ICSM program includes management topics such as sports event planning, marketing and public relations, and facilities.

Approximately 50 students annually are drawn from the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT) and its affiliated sport organizations around the country to attend each of the certification programs, with a total of 100 students involved each year.  Following the conclusion of the classroom portion of the program, which is provided by Academy instructors, the SAT selects the best students from each program for a special study tour of sport in America. A delegation of approximately 15 students and administrators from the SAT takes part in an educational tour of various sports organizations and venues for two weeks from coast to coast in the United States, including a study visit to the Academy.

The coming year will mark the 12^th year of the Sports Study Tour. The Academy and the SAT have a Memorandum of Understanding to extend cooperation in sports education and training through 2020.

Africa

While not a stop on the latest tour, the Academy recently has made progress toward boosting sport education and development in Africa.

Gabon:  In March, the Academy signed a new five-year cooperative agreement to strengthen the national sports program of the central African nation of Gabon. The Academy will work with Gabon on numerous enhancements including youth sports, sport facilities, national teams, and strength and conditioning.

The Academy’s work in Gabon goes back to 2010 and the signing of a protocol for cooperation to develop sport in that country. This led to a project in which the Academy conducted a facilities legacy study on how to make best use of the Sino-Gabonese Friendship Stadium in Gabon’s largest and capital city of Libreville. The 40,000-seat stadium was given to Gabon by the Chinese government and used for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) soccer tournament in 2012.

Senegal: The Republic of Senegal and the Academy have entered into discussions for the Academy to do a comprehensive assessment of Senegal’s national sport program as well as consideration for how the Academy’s international education programs may be used as a tool for sports program development in the West African nation.

His Excellency Matar Ba, Senegal’s Minister of Sport, met recently in Dakar with Academy Board of Trustees member Joseph Szlavik, who shared his thoughts on how the Academy’s sport education expertise may best be used in Senegal. These discussions support the vision of Senegal President His Excellency Macky Sall to enhance the country’s national sport effort.

The meeting between Minister Ba and Szlavik was arranged by His Excellency Babacar Diagne, Senegal’s Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary to the United States, who recently met with Academy President and CEO Dr. T.J. Rosandich in New York City.

Minister Ba and Szlavik reached an understanding that the Academy will undertake a thorough assessment of Senegal’s national sport effort to guide plans for the future development of sport in the country. The assessment will look at all aspects including facilities, infrastructure, programs and personnel.

Founded some 45 years ago, the Academy has delivered quality sport education and service programs in 65 countries around the world. These have varied in scope from the full-charge conduct of a nation’s entire national sport effort to individual coaching clinics, seminars, and symposia. As a not-for-profit, independent school of sport, the Academy has been able to provide a combination of expertise expected from a sports university combined with the experience gleaned from applying this expertise in the field.

Clients of the Academy have included central sports organizations (CSOs, such as ministries of youth and sports), national Olympic committees, ministries of education (for physical education and interscholastic sport programs) and sport associations and federations. Many of the details of this work can be found by visiting the Academy’s website at https://ussa.edu/international-sport-education/.

The United States Sports Academy is an independent, non-profit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and world with programs in instruction, research and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports.

The Academy is based in Daphne, Ala.  For more information, call (251) 626-3303 or visit www.ussa.edu.

By the United States Sports Academy