Michael Gervais

This is a short chapter book for beginning readers with a great message. When a young boy in Harlem gets new basketball shoes, he thinks they will make him a champion. They cost a lot of money, but his mom buys them for him. He heads off to the park and challenges his friends to some one-on-one. When he beats them all, he feels like a champion that can not lose. When No-Joke-Moke, challenges him to a game he agrees. Moke is smaller, younger and has shoes with holes, no way can he lose. He even accepts Moke's bet of winner getting the new shoes. Of course you can probably figure out what happens. Shoes do not make a champion. The illustrations in the book are just often enough to add to this story. A great book for children of all ages. This is a great book for public, school, classroom and home libraries. I hope there will be a sequel with these characters as they are easy to relate to.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.… (mer)

Abstract:
Currently there are a few substance abuse prevention outcome studies centering on college-aged athletes (Watson, 2002) and research on sport-based substance abuse prevention programs for this population is virtually non-existent (Carter, 1998; Hartmann, 2001). The purpose of this evaluation was to examine a sport-based life-skills alcohol and other drug prevention program called Late Night Sports (LNS).

The current study used a retrospective pre-test design using three inventories, the Athletic Coping Styles lnventory-28, the Individual Protective Factors Index, and the LNS Participant History Questionnaire. This study tested hypotheses that particpants who attended seven or more LNS sessions would have a significant increase when compared lo those who attended one or two sessions in their perception of (a) personal coping skills, (b) coping with adversity, (c) performing under pressure, (d) setting goals, as well as increases in (e) personal competence, (f) self-control, (g) cooperation, and (h) self-efficacy. This study also measured alcohol abuse patterns for program participants.

Paired t-tests with Bonferroni corrections were conducted to reveal significant increases in participants' overall personal coping skills, as well as their reported ability to cope with adversity, perform under pressure, and to set goals. Pre-adjusted Bonferroni paired t-tests found significant differences for personal competence, self­-control, and cooperation. Additionally, a significant decrease in alcohol binge drinking was found for program participants. A significant difference was not found for the self­-efficacy subscale.

Tukey's post hoc analysis revealed significant differences between groups for the subscales of coping with adversity, peaking under pressure, goal setting, and the overall personal coping skill score. Post hoc analysis did not reveal differences between groups for personal competence, self-control, or cooperation.

Results indicated that participants of LNS were able to increase a number of life-skills. Participants also indicated a decrease in alcohol abuse while participating in the program. These findings support the contention that sport-based programming can be an effective way to concomitantly deliver life skills training and alcohol and drug prevention services for college-aged males.… (mer)