O'Grady, Rappe earn CHAMP scholarships
BY COLORADOAN STAFF
Two recent Poudre School District high school graduates have been awarded inaugural Heart of a Champion scholarships by CHaracter in Athletics - Make it a Priority.
CHAMP announced that Chris O'Grady, who graduated last weekend from Rocky Mountain, and Kelly Rappe, a Poudre Graduate, will receive $500 one-time scholarships toward tuition and books to the school of their choice.
O'Grady, bound for Louisville, participated in football, baseball and basketball during his four years at Rocky. Rappé competed in field hockey, track and field and basketball for the Impalas and will continue her education at Hendrix College, a small liberal arts school in Conway, Ark.
O'Grady and Rappé were among 23 applicants.
Funds for the scholarship were donated by friends and family in memorial of former Fort Collins resident and Purdue all-star Scott Nelson. Nelson died in a local plane crash in July 2004 along with local businessmen Leo Schuster and Bill Neal.
CHAMP is a program of Character Fort Collins, a nonprofit organization that advances and promotes good character in all sectors of the community. For more information on CHAMP, go online at www.champfc.com.
Kinard, Yonker earn CHAMP Awards
BY SEAN DUFF
Story used with permission from the Coloradoan, February 26, 2009
Two longtime city educators and coaches were honored Wednesday with the inaugural Sonny Lubick Coach of Character award. Hal Kinard, a former Lincoln Junior High School teacher and coach, and Rich Yonker, a former Poudre High School assistant and head football coach, teacher and athletic director, received the award before about 650 people at the Fort Collins Hilton.
The award was given by CHAMP, the acronym for CHaracter in Athletics – Make it a Priority, during its second annual celebration and community fundraising breakfast. CHAMP is a coalition of groups that promotes sportsmanship and positive characteristics.
“It’s not a program as much as a commitment,” CHAMP commissioner Ken Schrader told the audience.
The award is named after the former CSU football coach. Lubick and Matt Phillips, a former Colorado State University player, presented Kinard and Yonker with their awards.
I’m humbled and proud to be a part of CHAMP,” Lubick said.
Kinard, 75, spent 40-plus years at Lincoln Junior High. Kinard Junior High is named after him.
“It’s a great honor to have any award given to you with the name Sonny Lubick on it,” Kinard said. “I respect him as a coach, but I respect him more as a man.”
Yonker, 55, retired last year after 32 years at Poudre and then worked last football season as an assistant coach.
“It’s really a humbling tribute to receive an award named after Sonny Lubick,” Yonker said.
Kinard and Yonker were among six finalists for the award. The others were current coaches Mark Brook, head football coach at Rocky Mountain; Ron Clark, head girls soccer coach at Rocky; Paul Shimek, head volleyball coach at Fossil Ridge; and former coach Tom Davis, who coached football, basketball and track at Poudre.
Rod Olson, founder of Coaches of Excellence Institute, was the keynote speaker. CHAMP officials also announced the formation of a Heart of a Champion Senior Scholarship Program, which will provide $500 scholarships to one male and one female college-bound, high school senior. The scholarships are being underwritten by the friends and family of Scott Nelson, a former Purdue football player and Fort Collins Realtor who died at age 38 in a July 2004 plane crash in Fort Collins.
Champs put winning in perspective
BY KATHLEEN DUFF
Story used with permission from the Coloradoan, March 1, 2009
Ask just about any adult who has influenced him or her the most, and the word “coach” more often than not comes up.
Of course, I would like “Mom” to be up there, but “coach” is fine, too.
Perhaps it was a Little League coach when a girl was 6 who showed her how to hold a bat correctly but also how to shake hands with the umpire after the game.
Maybe it was a boy’s soccer coach who used words such as respect, honor and dignity much more than victory or winning.
Great coaches, of course, come from all sectors, not just sports.
But a local nonprofit, CHAMP, or CHaracter in Athletics – Make it a Priority, understands that sports participation is at least one effective conduit for teaching character to young people.
With thousands of young people in our community participating in some type of sport, from pee-wee soccer to high school athletics, prime opportunities exist to teach children skills that will help them throughout their lives, well beyond the playing field. Skills that will make them fair, compassionate and effective leaders in our community. Skills that apply to personal conduct, not sports performance.
On Wednesday, CHAMP honored two local coaches who did just that in their many years of assisting young people: Hal Kinard, who taught and coached at Lincoln Junior High School and for whom Kinard Junior High is named; and Rich Yonker, the former football coach at Poudre High School. They received CHAMP’s annual Sonny Lubick Coach of Character Award.
Far too often, stories about poor behavior related to sports participation make headlines. From the pros down to the smallest kids, we’ve all seen where actions have gotten out of hand. Usually, there’s plenty of hand-wringing afterward, but there’s not usually much talk about solutions. Many would rather condemn than repair.
But CHAMP, of which I am a member, is working toward solutions. By engaging parents, teachers, officials and coaches –any adult who has contact with children in a sport setting – CHAMP seeks to highlight positive examples and provide role models as well as educational opportunities.
Good character doesn’t just happen. Just like sports, you have to practice it and keep honing it. Sometimes all of us, and I include myself in the mix, need a reminder that playing sports is not just about the outcome of the game. For example, my daughter burst into tears a few weeks ago when an opponent refused to high-five her after a game. The loss stung momentarily, but the player’s behavior will stay with my daughter for a long time.
If we continue to consider victory only in the realm of a final score, then our kids will be short-changed in life – where there is no final score. Instead, we are judged by our conduct, our connections to people and how we respond to challenging situations on a daily basis. Perhaps we need to redefine just what “winning” means.
Go to www.champfc.com for more information about CHAMP or to www.characterfortcollins.org for more information about Character Fort Collins.
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