Ontarian speaks out on violence in sport

By JEFF GRAHAM

With the 2010 Olympics on the horizon for British Columbians, it is easy to get caught up in the spirit of competition. Elaine Raakman of Burlington, Ont., who knows a thing or two about competition, addressed a Vatican seminar Nov. 9 about problems and challenges in today’s sports, and in particular, sport and violence.

The Pontifical Council for the Laity held the seminar, entitled, The World of Sports Today, Field of Christian Commitment.

“It was incredible; it was absolutely phenomenal,” Raakman said. “There were 50 delegates from 18 different countries with everything from professors to the general secretary from UNESCO. We had two monsignors that hosted the event and had four professional athletes.”

Raakman, who has a degree in sports management, was involved in professional cycling for 10 years in Europe, and she has two children involved in sports. She is the president of Justplay, an organization that encourages good sportsmanship.

“The word competition actually means to strive together; you’re both actually working towards the same end. It’s when you lose perspective of the value of winning, that’s where you can go wrong,” she told The B.C. Catholic.

Raakman pointed out that the original intent of sport was to develop the entire person, but in many places this has degenerated into a hyper-aggressive, win-at-all-costs philosophy.

Major league sports in particular have been plagued with drug and blood-doping scandals, but Raakman thinks there is great potential for sport to get back to its roots and develop the entire person: emotionally, psychologically, physically, and spiritually.

So how does all of the hard tackling in a Grey Cup game develop good character?

“Football in particular is a particularly violent sport, in that you are trying to knock people down, but it all comes down to intent, honour, and integrity. Your intent is not to injure the other person, but to play within the rules. Aggressive is intent to harm, whereas assertive is to give it your all within the rules.”

“It’s an environment that lends itself well to the same values and Christianity,” she said. “Sport needs to be pastoral, that is essentially what we’re saying, that is the emphasis many Catholic athletes want to see.”

Raakman further explained that Christ provides a perfect example for athletes to follow. “He defeated His opponent, and there was probably no other teacher who was more demanding in terms of personal moral character,” she said.

Raakman says the inspiration for starting Jusplay came from her work in her sports management degree, as well as some disturbing incidents at her 12-year-old son’s soccer games that included prolific swearing and violence.

After seeing these problems at her son’s games, Raakman then began researching the issue of violence in athletics, and found that the issue was “epidemic.”

“I realized this required more research, and made phone calls to researchers, and found the problem was epidemic everywhere. Sport was not building character the way people thought it was; organizers were not structuring sport to ensure it had positive outcomes.”

Raakman decided to take action, and founded Justplay, an independent body that provides services dedicated to resolving issues of harassment, violence, and abuse in organized youth sport. Specifically, Justplay offers a computer program designed to track the behaviour of coaches, players, and spectators and designed to give sports associations better insight into and control over their leagues. The basic idea behind the program is to help people identify trends and predict the potential for problem behaviour from players, coaches, and fans.

Justplay provides four different workshops, each designed to emphasize a different positive aspect of sport.

The first workshop is on sport culture and community, and emphasizes sportsmanship, integrity, and tolerance. The second is on being a good sport parent, and shows parents of athletes how to help their children realize the potential benefits of youth sport.

The third, called coaching for character, shows how to provide children with a balanced and positive perspective on sport. The fourth, called no excuses, just play, is meant to teach children sportsmanship and good citizenship.

“Once I became a parent and had children who were participating, I saw the behaviour,” she said. “My son, of his own accord, quit playing soccer, which he loved, because the behaviour of his teammates was so disturbing to him. The language of his teammates and the adults was so disturbing that he didn’t want to be a part of the team.”

However, Raakman thinks there is tremendous potential within the Church to start bringing sports back to what they were originally intended to accomplish.

“Pope John Paul II has 135 writings on sport and the soul,” she said. “There is some amazing stuff there, and it needs to be brought together in one place.”

“It’s amazing that the Church recognizes that they have a role to play in evangelizing sports. As a global organization, the Church has an infrastructure that no other organization has, and it’s inspiring to think that we can really make a difference.”

She said she was particularly inspired by the atmosphere of hope that was at the council in Rome.

“The consensus that everybody walked away with is that sport has the potential to develop the whole person. Our greatest objective is to develop the whole character of the person, not just the physical being.”

“We have to raise the bar,” she said. “The original goals of youth sports were focused on the development of good citizens, not to have just acceptable character but to have excellence of character. The word team means yoked together, and we are all yoked together by faith and by humanity.”