September 9, 2019

To: All Area Media

From: Ryan Virtue, Positive Coaching Alliance

Bruce Brown, OIAAA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CLEVELAND – Positive Coaching Alliance-Cleveland and the Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (OIAAA) are pleased to announce a new partnership effective September 9.  This strategic partnership has been developed to provide additional support to OIAAA members specifically as it relates to enhancing culture development and elevating the social-emotional learning opportunities that co-curricular athletics presents. 

PCA-Cleveland is one of 18 chapters of the Positive Coaching Alliance, a national nonprofit organization that provides live in-person and online tools, resources and training for athletics leaders, coaches, parents and athletes that directly align with each individual schools’ mission.  As a leading professional development nonprofit association for high school administrators, the OIAAA is comprised primarily of athletic administrators of secondary schools in the state of Ohio. It was formed for the purpose of supporting and improving Interscholastic athletics and programs which enhance the development of young student-athletes, the professional inter-relationship between athletic administrators and other supervisory personnel.  The OIAAA also provides educational opportunities and channels of communication for its members.

“The missions of the Positive Coaching Alliance and the OIAAA could not be in more alignment.” said Ryan Virtue, Partnership Manager for PCA Cleveland. “Through this partnership, we have a tremendous opportunity to increase dialogue and provide valuable tools to assist education-based administrators in proactively addressing some of the biggest challenges they face in their roles.  It’s important to address current challenges facing athletic administrators; however we also have the opportunity to work with them proactively to address many of those issues within the youth sports environment before athletes and families even reach high school.”

PCA-Cleveland Board Chair, Neil Weiss, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for the Cleveland Indians added “Culture is everything to any sports organization at any level of competition.  Whether you are working with youth, high school, collegiate or professional athletes there is a significant level of importance in establishing environments where leadership, reasoning and social-emotional learning are at the forefront of player development. This partnership with the OIAAA will allow significant expansion of that mindset throughout the state of Ohio.”

Bruce Brown, Executive Director of the OIAAA, stated, “The mission of our organization has been to deliver best practice resources to and promote the professional development of the school administrators who coordinate and oversee interscholastic athletics in Ohio schools.  The collaboration with PCA-Cleveland allows us to enhance those resources for our members while strengthening the support of the purpose and vision of what sports can provide for the overall development of children.”

With the launch of this partnership, throughout the month of September, PCA is offering current partner/renewal pricing for PCA live workshops to any OIAAA member schools.  Any interested parties should request more information at https://positivecoach.org/forms/request-more-information/.  As the partnership develops, OIAAA members will also have access to continuing educational opportunities during OIAAA state and regional conferences. Specific PCA tools and resources will also be made available through the OIAAA AD Toolbox.

About the OIAAA

The Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association was founded in 1956 to provide a professional organization in Ohio for interscholastic athletic administrators. From its beginning, the OIAAA was established to create an exchange forum of best practice for the oversight and enhancement of education-based athletic programs in Ohio schools. 

Services performed by the OIAAA include (but not limited to): 

  • Certified professional development for athletic administrators
  • Professional forums for current athletic issue solutions.
  • Exchange of professional literature, ideas and training programs.
  • Marketing of and public relations for the development of education-based athletic programs.
  • Endorsement of ethical standards in interscholastic athletics.
  • Support and development of sportsmanship in athletics. 

The OIAAA is dedicated to the advancement of interscholastic, education-based athletic programs in Ohio. They are a non-profit (501c3) organization.

For more information on the OIAAA, please contact Executive Director, Bruce Brown at oiaaa.brucebrown@gmail.com or 330-352-9848.

About PCA-Cleveland

Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) is a national non-profit organization with the mission of creating a positive, character-building youth sports environment that results in BETTER ATHLETES, BETTER PEOPLE.

 

Youth sports currently involves 40M children, which presents a tremendous platform on which to develop youth character and life skills. Research has shown that in order for youth to accrue these benefits from sports, sports needs to be done in a way that creates a positive youth development culture. PCA ensures sports are ‘done right’ with programming that is research-based and designed to have an impact at three levels in a youth sports organization or school:

  • Youth experience improved life skills and character development.  They also perform better!
  • Coaches become more positive and increase their focus on using sports to teach life lessons.
  • Youth Sports Organizations & Schools see their cultures become more positive and everyone involved has more fun.

 

Since its founding in 1998, PCA has established 18 chapters nationwide, partnered with roughly 3,500 schools and youth sports organizations to deliver more than 20,000 live group workshops, reaching 19.2 million youth. PCA offers interactive online courses and has thousands of multimedia tips and tools for coaches, parents, athletes, and leaders available free of charge on PCADevZone.org. PCA also runs two annual awards programs: a scholarship program for high school student-athletes and a coach award program to recognize youth and high school coaches who strive to win and teach life lessons.

 

PCA gains support from a National Advisory Board of elite coaches, professional and Olympic athletes, organization leaders, and academics who share PCA’s mission including Dusty Baker, Carol Dweck, Herm Edwards, Julie Foudy, Phil Jackson, and Steve Kerr. PCA is proud to partner with more than 50 national governing bodies, youth serving organizations and professional leagues and teams including Boys & Girls Club of America, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, and US Lacrosse.

 

The Cleveland Chapter of the Positive Coaching Alliance was founded in 2011 by then General Manager of the Cleveland Indians and current President/General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, Mark Shapiro.


To learn more about Positive Coaching Alliance, or to become involved in the movement contact Ryan Virtue, PCA-Cleveland Partnership Manager at ryan_virtue@positivecoach.org or 440-465-6552.

 

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