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Wittenberg University Student-Athletes Learn Important Lessons at Sportsmanship Conference

Posted February 28, 2002
Posted by: Ryan Maurer

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - As part of a North Coast Athletic Conference program to promote "Sportsmanship in Intercollegiate Athletics" for the 2001-02 academic year, nearly 300 of Wittenberg University's student-athletes attended presentations on the topic on campus on Wednesday, Feb. 27.

The presentations, featuring Daniel Doyle, founder and director of the Institute for International Sport, were billed as open forums on sportsmanship and were co-sponsored by the NCAC and Wittenberg's department of athletics. Ten such presentations were made throughout the school year, with each of the conference's schools hosting one of them.

The NCAC was awarded a grant from the National Collegiate Athletic Assocation to promote this unique sportsmanship program. Doyle, the director of the Institute for International Sport at the University of Rhode Island, was the featured speaker at all 10 presentations.

Doyle is a former NCAA Division III basketball coach and most recently served as director of National Sportsmanship Day, the largest sportsmanship program in the world, and the World Scholar-Athlete Games, which included delegations from 151 countries and all 50 states, making it the largest sports/cultural event in the world in 2001. He was recently named by The Sporting News as one of the 10 Powerful Sports Figures to Watch in 2002.

Among the students who attended Doyle's first presentation of the day, junior track athlete Mark Trempe said he learned that leadership is a quality that can be present in so many different forms in so many different people.

"He told us that there are various aspects of leadership," said Trempe, who is from Springfield. "He described the self-restraint shown by someone like (Duke University men's basketball coach) Mike Krzyzewski. Everybody sees leadership in people who are outspoken and fiery. But there are a lot of ways to be a leader."