The alliance began in 1997, so it still is continuing to grow and develop. The alliance's first national awareness campaign, "Focus on Respect," debuted with public-service announcements last year during the WNBA season and has continued to air during various sporting events. Additional PSAs are planned for this year as well, while a new awareness campaign is planned for 2000.

A citizenship organizing tool

The CTSA also plans to be a resource for others who are interested in changing sports culture and emphasizing citizenship and respect for self and others. The alliance has developed a community organizing tool on its Web site at www.sportsmanship.org. (or www.sportsmanship.org/main.html.)

There you will find the CTSA Action Toolkit, "Citizenship: It's Up to Us." The material includes information on how to build a citizenship team, how to influence parents and coaches and suggested citizenship activities, along with sample press releases and sample codes of conduct for athletes. It also details the rationale behind using sports culture to positively impact society as a whole. Also included are suggestions for developing a citizenship speakers' bureau, citizenship training seminars and establishing citizenship awards.

"We've made the toolkit available because our view is that you've got to get started with young people before they get to high school," Boggan said. "We believe that what you learn from your parents is what carries over, so the question then becomes, 'How do you get the parents to buy into sportsmanship and citizenship?'

"We think it's got to begin at the grass-roots level, and we've got to be able to give people tools like the action kit so they can do things on their own."

Another element of the CTSA citizenship initiative is asking the alliance members to develop programs that address the alliance's principles, along with including citizenship and sportsmanship messages in their existing programs.

Many of the organizations have taken special care to emphasize respect in a variety of ways. For example, the NCAA has taken the concept of "Focus on Respect," and included it in videos distributed to football student-athletes. The National Federation of State High School Associations has a national effort called "Be a Sport," that seeks to underscore the importance of sportsmanship. Through this program, many of the state associations of the NFHS have developed and instituted year-round sportsmanship efforts.

"There is a whole series of things we can do, as organizations within the alliance, to get these messages across," Boggan said. "Everybody has programs that can help further the principles of the CTSA."

While there are too many programs offered by the various organizations within the alliance to permit a detailed listing of all of them, it's still useful to examine many of the alliance members' most successful and high-profile initiatives.

The NCAA's Youth Education through Sports (YES) clinics, which reach approximately 12,000 young people each year, are designed to bring the nation's best college coaches and student-athletes to young people in cities that host NCAA championships. The clinics include instruction on skill development, health and nutrition, as well as an emphasis on respect for self and others.

The U.S. Olympic Committee's "Champions in Life" outreach program reaches thousands of youngsters within cities such as Washington, D.C.; Boston; Indianapolis; Orlando, Florida; and Phoenix. "Champions in Life" is a program that emphasizes real-life heroes and role models. Olympic athletes volunteer their time to deliver messages relating to staying in school, teamwork, responsibility and commitment to excellence.

The National Football League's "NFL C.I.T.Y. Junior Development Program" provides young football players in nine NFL cities with the opportunity to learn more about the sport and about life during summer clinics. In addition to learning more about football, the young people learn about sportsmanship, responsibility and dealing with peer pressure.

Major League Baseball has partnered with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Rawlings Sporting Goods to present "Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI)," a program to promote youth interest in baseball, increase the self esteem of disadvantaged children, and encourage children to stay in school. This year, the RBI program will expand to 120 cities, serving more than 110,000 boys and girls.

The Women's National Basketball Association has a program for young people that promotes the value of fitness as well as the value of sport. "WNBA Be Active," presented by Sears, is a nationwide health and fitness initiative that will travel to 13 cities this year. Targeting girls and boys ages 11-14, the program will feature appearances by WNBA athletes, motivational speeches, skill demonstrations and an exercise program that focuses on cardiovascular fitness.

Life skills after sports

The NCAA's well-known CHAMPS/Life Skills program helps to further the goals of the CTSA by assisting institutions in addressing the academic and social aspects of life for student-athletes on campus. It also includes programs dealing with drug and alcohol education, as well as the promotion of nonviolence programs and diversity education.

The National Hockey League's "Nike/NHL Street Hockey" program, targeted at boys and girls ages 6-16, provides NHL team communities with a sports program that promotes education, sportsmanship and fitness through participation in hockey. The NHL teams invite youth recreation centers to receive a comprehensive turn-key street-hockey program, which includes distribution of free equipment, training and program manuals.

This last year, the NHL's program was expanded to include "Light the Lamp," a life-skills initiative. Now, participants are introduced to life-skills lessons through a series of video vignettes and accompanying workbooks. Life-skills messages are incorporated in hockey story lines using NHL players and coaches. Of special emphasis are goal setting, teamwork and responsibility.

The NHL also has joined TEAM (Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management). It promotes TEAM's messages, including responsible drinking (and discouraging drinking and driving), with video public-service announcements and print ads that appear in game programs. A new initiative, the NHL Designated Driver Program, provides a turn-key system to help member clubs implement a designated-driver booth at their arena.

The Olympic MEDALS (Management, Empowerment, Development of Athlete Life Skills) program is a life-skills program for resident athletes of the Olympic Training Centers. The program addresses a variety of life-skills issues, including communications skills, academic and career development and community service.

Sportsmanship education

The NFHS has taken the idea of citizenship into the classroom, offering the "Citizenship Through Sports and Fine Arts Curriculum," now in its second edition, which is designed to develop and maintain the idea of citizenship. The curriculum includes a video and books focusing on citizenship and the traits of respect, positive values, perspective, sportsmanship, teamwork, healthy lifestyles and community service.

New components of the curriculum provide additional reinforcement for teaching citizenship values in other high-school programs, such as the fine arts.

NFHS also has developed a video, "Winning Respect," that shows young people taking about respect for opponents, teammates and teams, officials, the game itself, and between athletes and coaches.

"Through this curriculum, together with such initiatives as the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance, we will have opportunities to make a significant difference in creating better citizens through sports and fine arts," said Robert F. Kanaby, executive director of the NFHS. "We expect to use the co-curricular activities to do our part in contributing in a positive way to the future of this nation."

The USOC reaches out to school children through its "Olympic School Curriculum," which includes Olympic-related products, such as books, videos and posters. The aim of this curriculum is to teach children more about the Olympic ideals. More than 500,000 of the units have been distributed to school teachers nationwide.

The USOC also has developed a "Newspapers in Education" program in conjunction with the Newspapers of America Association Foundation, again with the idea of teaching young people about the ideals and goals of the Olympic movement. Through this program, elementary schools receive student supplements, teacher guides and special sections in newspapers across the country.

The USOC will soon launch a new program, "Coaching Ethics Education," which will focus on the education of coaches. The idea is to emphasize professionalism and assist coaches with an understanding of the USOC Coaching Code of Ethics.

Another program designed for the classroom is the NHL's "Cool School," which applies hockey-themed activities to language skills, English, math, social students, sciences and life skills/ health education.

This program was designed specifically for school children in Toronto, home of the NHL's all-star game in 2000. Students will receive activity workbooks, while educators will receive teacher guides and parents will be sent a newsletter suggesting ways parents can get more involved with their child's in-class activities.

More than just sportsmanship

While citizenship and sportsmanship are the most prominent goals of the CTSA, its other principles, such as promotion of nonviolence, promotion of the drug-free athlete and promotion of diversity, are areas where alliance members offer a number of programs, many of them already well-known.

The NCAA has various ethnic-minority internships and development programs, including a new Fellows program designed to help create a more diverse pool of leaders in athletics administration.

The Olympic F.L.A.M.E. program, which stands for "Finding Leaders Among Minorities Everywhere," emphasizes the education and encouragement of minority youth. The program rewards young people who demonstrate outstanding leadership in their pursuit of athletics excellence, community involvement and academic achievement, goals of both the CTSA and the Olympic movement.

The NHL/USA Diversity Task Force supports a number of programs designed to introduce children of diverse ethnic backgrounds to the game of hockey while also teaching them life skills as well.

The NHL distributes hockey gear to disadvantaged youth, and it also offers grants to assist organizations that promote ice hockey. Top inner-city hockey programs are showcased at the NHL's annual Willie O'Ree All-Star Game, an event that honors the first black hockey player in the NHL.

Major League Baseball offers "Breaking Barriers: In Sports. In Life," an educational program that is based on the nine values that shaped the life of baseball great Jackie Robinson: persistence, courage, integrity, justice, teamwork, citizenship, determination, commitment and excellence. Developed by MLB, the MLB Players Association and Scholastic Inc. and designed for children ages 9-12, this cross-curricular education program allows children to study the story of Jackie Robinson while learning about civil rights, the women's movement and history. Also included are baseball-themed activities in math, art, social studies, language arts and science.

Shining the light on good sports

Many of the alliance members also have a number of awards programs for those who display exceptional citizenship or sportsmanship, along with codes of conduct or ethical codes for student-athletes, athletes and coaches. Most of the codes include an element pertaining to sportsmanship and ethical conduct. Other parts of many of the codes include other CTSA principles, such as a commitment to drug-free competition and a promise to refrain from physical or sexual harassment or abuse.

Part of CTSA's goals for the future include gaining more recognition for those who excel in sportsmanship and less emphasis on the negative aspects of sports. The members of the alliance are working together to raise the public's awareness of sportsmanship, citizenship and the value of sport in society.

"Ten years from now, we'd like assaults on officials -- at any level -- to no longer be an issue," Boggan said. "We'd like to see parents who emphasize sportsmanship and who don't go berserk at youth-league games. We'd like to see coaches having enough skills that yelling is not the only one they use.

"It's all about the next generation and the joy of competition. It's about the light that you see in kids' eyes when they love to play. We'd like for sports to be a positive force in children's lives from the very beginning. We'd like them to be not just better athletes but better citizens as well."

What CTSA board members are saying about the alliance

"The Citizenship Through Sports Alliance allows the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) to reach out in ways not possible as an individual organization. As an organization united to accomplish one goal, the CTSA has been able to pool the collective resources of each member organization, thus allowing for a broader reach and a much more powerful message. The NJCAA and our member colleges are fortunate to be a part of, a contributor to, and a beneficiary of, that message."

-- Mary Ellen Leicht, assistant executive director, National Junior College Athletic Association

"The Citizenship Through Sports Alliance solidly reinforces the NAIA's long-held tenets of citizenship, leadership and sportsmanship as developed through participation in athletics. It's a perfect partnership. CTSA provides the platform and resources for those qualities to be defined and promoted, the NAIA provides the opportunity for the student-athlete to hone and demonstrate those qualities, and together CTSA and NAIA provide a forum for recognition of the student-athlete's achievement."

-- Steve Baker, chief executive officer, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics

"The U.S. Olympic Committee was thrilled to be a founding member of the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance. The CTSA's mission and principles mirror closely the Olympic ideals that support America's Olympic Team and the code by which Olympic athletics struggle to realize their own dreams. We are committed to the CTSA and see it as a huge, positive force of potential for the future of sport."

-- Sheila Walker, senior director of sports development, United States Olympic Committee

"About four years ago, the president of the NCAA asked me to be the primary liaison for the Special Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct in Intercollegiate Athletics. It became clear quickly that to be effective in changing this behavior within intercollegiate athletics, it would require work with the NFHS, NJCAA and the pro leagues. That's why the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance is so important. It brings the major sports leagues, the school/college community and the Olympic family together to work on and reinforce the value and significance of sport in our culture -- and to emphasize the positive aspects of what sports participation can bring to citizenship responsibilities."

-- Daniel Boggan Jr., senior vice-president, NCAA, and chair of the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance

"The Citizenship Through Sports Alliance is important to the National Hockey League and its member clubs because it promotes ethical play and positive values throughout the community -- key characteristics the league and its players strive to uphold."

-- Bryant S. McBride, vice-president, business development, National Hockey League