A moment during Pat McCaskey's talk at the Chicago Bears headquarters.

February 23, 2010. Lake Forest, IL.  On February 20, a SportsLeader presentation was held at Halas Hall, the Chicago Bears headquarters. Bears owners Virginia and Patrick McCaskey attended, along with a total of 60 participants, including about 40 coaches. The coaches came from 14 different programs from the Chicago area, including Catholic and public school sports teams, and a few sports leagues.
 
The goal of the presentation was to continue training new coaches to implement the SportsLeader program. Mike Cemeno, a SportsLeader promoter; Dr. Tom Nelson, an assistant varsity football coach at Nazareth Academy High School; and Fr Jacob DuMont, LC, organized the conference.
 
Men with an ideal and a vision

The lineup of speakers included Pat McCaskey, the owner of the Chicago Bears. In his talk, he described George Halas, the founder of the Chicago Bears, as a man of faith and virtue who wanted the men on the team to be virtuous and upright.

Dean Hood, the head football coach at Eastern Kentucky University, spoke about how SportsLeader has helped support the character development program that he had already instituted with his teams in the past. He commented that he is constantly looking for new ways to help his young men with team building activities, voluntary prayer, and even a voluntary program called Song of Solomon, which is an optional Theology of the Body course for this football players. He commented that about 27 came to the program last year, with an even greater turnout expected this year.

Coach

	A view of the auditorium of coaches during the SportsLeader presentations.

Joe Reynolds, the head sophomore coach at Nazareth Academy, gave a personal testimony about how he was transformed by volunteering at a soup kitchen and returning to Mass after 25 years. In that context, he described how he rolled out the SportsLeader program at Nazareth with great success.

Coach Dr. Tom Nelson also spoke about starting SportsLeader at Nazareth Academy, describing the steps, obstacles, and personal fruits he saw as an assistant sophomore coach.

Finally, Mike Williams, a graduating senior linebacker from Nazareth Academy, gave a personal testimony about how his SportsLeader coaches met him where he was at and lifted him up when he most needed a helping hand. His testimony can be viewed on the SportsLeader blogspot at this link.
 
After the presentations Pat McCaskey took all of the coaches on a tour of the Halas Hall facilities including the weight training and therapy rooms.
 
For more information about SportsLeader’s programs, visit the web site at www.sportsleader.org.