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Jeffrey Marx: Sport Does Not Automatically Build Character, But It Can

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Listen in as Positive Coaching Alliance goes 1-on-1 in interviews with top pro and college players, coaches, executives and other major sports figures who provide tips, tools, information and inspiration for youth and high school sports coaches, parents and student-athletes.

This 1-on-1 interview features Jeffrey Marx (@JeffreyMarx25), author of New York Times bestseller Season of Life, and the youngest-ever winner of the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. As an author and keynote speaker, Marx has written six books and his most requested presentation is – "This Thing We Call Success" – which focuses on the major themes in Season of Life: building healthy relationships, building community, and building leaders.

David Jacobson (@CoachDaveJake), who led PCA's marketing communications efforts for over 12 years, talks to Marx about the influence of Season of Life, and how coaches and teams all over the country have adapted the main themes of Season of Life to fit the needs of their program. Both Marx's book and this podcast dive deeper into key themes of Season of Life, such as relationships and working for a cause greater than oneself, and how youth sports reinforces and teaches those values to kids.

Other highlights of the podcast include:

  • The power of the sports platform to change relationships and the world for better.

  • The powerful role of coaches, and how PCA National Advisory Board Member Joe Ehrmann redefined coaching as "taking athletes from where they are to where they want to be going," regardless of results on the scoreboard.

  • How it's a myth that "sports build character": sports, according to Marx, can build character if the coach is intentional about teaching character through sports.

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