Testimonials for The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting

"The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting is an extraordinary contribution to the field of sports and education. I was particularly taken by the leadership principles espoused by Dan Doyle. It is clear to me that Dan and I share similar views with respect to leadership."
- General Colin Powell

"As a parent and coach, I appreciate the commitment Dan Doyle has made to synthesize an astounding array of information and to sharpen our focus on those philosophies and practices that will most positively impact our players. As someone who works with young people – many of whom are student-athletes – and supports their collegiate experience, I appreciate the consistent focus Dan maintains on the student-athlete as a young person working to develop his or her highest potential – wherever that potential may lie."
- Colleen J. Quint, Executive Director, the Mitchell Institute and Senator George J. Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute, Portland, Maine

"Dan Doyle's Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting is brilliant, and serves a real need in the athletics community. It is, by far, the most comprehensive book that I have seen on this important topic. Youth sports have changed dramatically over the years. Unfortunately, one of the worst trends has been the move to specialization and year round training in one sport for young athletes. With this has come a dramatic increase in the involvement of parents in the athletic careers of their sons and daughters. Dan lays out very clearly the proper role that parents should play in their children's careers. It is a must read, not only for parents, but also for athletes, coaches and administrators."
- Mark Murphy, Athletic Director, Northwestern University; former captain, Washington Redskins Super Bowl Championship Team

"As a pediatrician, my role is to guide parents in promoting their children's optimal growth and development. The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting is an extraordinarily comprehensive resource that informs both parents and child health providers, alike. This remarkable text addresses virtually all aspects of youth sports through a unique combination of insightful observations, expert opinions, informative anecdotes, and research findings. Dan Doyle offers guidance on nurturing in our children such desirable qualities as integrity, a strong work ethic, mental toughness, self-discipline and self-control, self-reliance and self-esteem, teamwork, leadership, organizational skills, 'competitive self restraint,' willpower, trust, and delayed gratification. These rich recommendations have profound implications that extend beyond sports and also serve as a superb handbook on effective parenting."
- Paul H. Dworkin, MD Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Physician-in-Chief, Connecticut Children's Medical Center, Hartford, Connecticut

"There are certain books - rare in number - that truly have a powerful, positive and widespread impact on society. The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting is one such rare and extraordinary book. It is exciting to contemplate what The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting will do for the American Sports culture - and American society. The book is absolutely brilliant."
- The Honorable Patrick Lynch, Attorney General, State of Rhode Island

"Dan Doyle's The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting offers parents and leaders alike with wonderful insight into the magic of sport and the power that sport possesses when this magic is properly managed. Through a combination of tremendous wisdom, practical application, hands-on exercises and available resources, Doyle provides parents with a brilliant and flawless approach to guiding their children on the playing field and throughout life. Doyle proves that sport is an integral part of the American educational delivery system, which provides parents with a uniquely fertile ground where important seeds leading to a meaningful life can be purposefully planted, sown and cultivated. The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting illustrates that the same challenges we face in the process of living our adult lives are the challenges our kids face in the microcosm of an athletic stage. No sport or parenting book ever written will have a more positive influence on society than Doyle's masterpiece."
- Mike Cleary, Executive Director, National Association of College Athlete Directors

"Dan Doyle's Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting is a book about uncommon, common sense. Dan concisely addresses the benefits and challenges of competition from the perspective of an educator, parent, and former coach. He has artfully translated the theory of effective teaching and parenting into actual practice. At Princeton, we refer to this approach as character- and/or values-based coaching, an expectation that is consistent with fulfilling the educational mission of our University. Fundamental skill development, or "doing things right," is only one part of the equation, and perhaps the least important part. The playing field should also be an ethical training ground where the participants learn "to do the right thing." This process can only take place if the parents/coaches themselves are positive role models -- leaders who possess the requisite knowledge, values and character to impart transforming life lessons when "teachable moments" occur. Those of us in the field of athletic education owe Dan a debt of gratitude for identifying, raising and reinforcing the standards of conduct intrinsic to successful sports parenting."
- Gary Walters, Director of Athletics, Princeton University

"When I was a kid, I systematically went to my dad with questions, and, just as systematically, instead of giving me a quick answer, he would say, "Look it up in the Encyclopedia! It covers everything from A to Z." A wise man, my dad, because he knew, once I got to the Encyclopedia, I would broaden my knowledge and peruse the many interesting topics that took me well beyond my original question.

Dad's advice rings true once again with the publication of Dan Doyle's THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SPORTS PARENTING. If you're a parent with kids in sports, and you have questions, take my dad's advice, "Look it up in Dan Doyle's Encyclopedia!" You will indeed find topics from A to Z.

Dan is a writer, a philosopher, a teacher, a parent, a coach, and a poet. His values laden approach to youth sports combines discussions of the practical "how to" and the thought provoking "what if."

Whether it's the well-designed and thorough organization of his material, or his easy-to- read style, or his concise summary boxes to ensure that we take away the kernel message on every topic, Dan Doyle has produced a work truly worthy of the term "encyclopedic."
- Darrell J. Burnett, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, Certified Sports Psychologist, specializing in Youth Sports

"Whether you're a student athlete, the parent of an athlete, a sports fan, a fitness-conscious individual, a guidance counselor, a coach, or an armchair athlete, The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting teems with information for all levels and interests of sports and athletics. With great insight and near-reverence for the power of sport not only to change lives, but even more importantly, to change the world, Dan Doyle treats readers to an insider's view of the world of sports, a world to which he's devoted his life.

In conducting his research, Doyle plumbed the minds and expertise of hundreds of renowned and respected coaches as well as student athletes for information about the college recruiting process, the pros and cons of playing Division I or Division III sports, how and when to talk to your child's coach, sports camps, and so much more. Open to any page and you will be rewarded with advice, statistics, web information, and a host of resources for athletes, playing at all levels, in this essential sports guide for parents.

The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting makes you feel as if you have your own personal sports consultant at your disposal, 24-7, at a fraction of a sports consultant's fee. Now that's a slam-dunk!"
- Lynn Hoffman, sports parent and acclaimed poet

"Dan Doyle's new Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting functions as a powerful "go to" book, an invaluable lookup or reference source. Dan has been the founder of several of the most powerful organizations and movements where sports, ethics and international relations talk to one another. In a time when sports and ethics often seem to be on different planets, let alone different wavelengths, Dan's voice as an ethicist who knows more about sport than all but a handful is both needed and powerful."
- William C. Hiss, Vice President for External Affairs, Bates College

"For more than 35 years I have been a teacher primarily teaching courses in poetry writing. Early on, poet William Stafford visited our college to give a reading and lead a master class. On our way down the hall to the classroom, Stafford asked me, "What do you do in this class?" I said, "We simply try to write the best poems we can." He stopped and in his soft and sincere way said, "Why? Why would you do that?"

Stafford's words hit me like a thwack beside the head from the wise stick of a Zen master. That afternoon, as I watched him lead the students, I noticed how he never praised, never criticized, never mentioned words such as excellence or even good. He concentrated completely on other values that were in the poems, it seemed a multitude of them. And the students were as alive as a group of kindergartners on the way to the circus.

Dan Doyle is the William Stafford of sports, and his Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting is extraordinary. Without ever negating excellence, he has steadfastly worked against the overwhelming onslaught of a reductive view of the value of sports, that the main thing is not only winning, but being the best, number one. In the United States there is only number one. Everything else is less, everyone else is a loser.

It's mid-November as I write this. The other night as I was watching a ball game, the so-called analyst actually pronounced, "A loss here could have a dire effect on their chances for the NCAA Tourney come March." He said that! The game mattered, but not for all the reasons Dan understands. It mattered only because being number one at the end is what mattered.

In Dan Doyle's stunningly thorough book, his is a voice of sanity amid a bedlam of hype. He knows that what the real loss is: the loss of the multitude of other values that attention only to being the best, not ones best mind you, but THE best causes. He knows how quickly a child can have the soul-nourishing experience of sports anesthetized by even well meaning coaches, parents, schools, and sports fans. He knows what happens to our selves when we narrow the plurality of values inherent in sport not just to winning but to defeating the other.

In his monumental collection of interviews titled Working, Studs Terkel asked the great hockey player Eric Nesterenko what his most joyous moment was on the ice. The star replied that it wasn't in the NHL. It was after he had retired. He was driving along and noticed an iced over pond. He pulled off to the side of the road, strapped on his skates, and skated, skated and skated in pure joy.

Dan Doyle's work is in behalf of all the good that sport can bring into our days whether we are playing or rooting for a champion or shooting hoops under a garage light in the driveway. Many voices call for reform. His voice calls for restoration, the restoration of what, after the madness of March, really matters."
- Jack Ridl, son of the late Charles "Buzz" Ridl, legendary men's basketball coach at the University of Pittsburgh in an essay