Coaches at Verona High School in Verona, New Jersey are preparing for workshops in June aimed at helping students become “Better Athletes, Better People” – training provided through a national non-profit called the Positive Coaching Alliance.

Verona High has partnered with the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) for the last three years to help coaches, parents, student athletes and administrators get the most out of athletics by ensuring school sports are first and foremost an experience in character building, TapInto.net reports.

PCA’s work with the New Jersey school is one of about 3,500 partnerships with schools, conferences, youth sports groups, and parks and recreation departments aimed at creating a sports culture that develops “Better Athletes, Better People” – the PCA motto.

“Our job is to provide an amazing educational and athletic experience to our student-athletes who work so hard year round to perfect their craft,” Verona High School Director of Athletics Bob Merkler said. “By providing the life lessons that are so valuable in athletics, we believe we can help them acquire the tools and traits that will help them to be successful adults.”

That’s what the PCA is all about, and the focus of more than 1,800 free multimedia tips and tools at the group’s website, PCADevZone.org. Other resources include online courses and books by PCA Founder Jim Thompson, as well as specific lessons tailored to coaches, parents and players.

The materials are developed with the support of PCA’s National Advisory Board, which includes 11-time NBA champion coach Phil Jackson, NBA legend Joe Dumars, Cy Young Award winning pitcher Barry Zito, and numerous other current and former professional athletes, Olympians, coaches, managers and business leaders.

“We look forward to working with Verona High School to create the best possible experience for the student-athletes,” PCA Founder Jim Thompson said. “Our researched-based materials combine the latest in sports psychology, education and practical advice from top pro and college coaches and athletes that help improve athletic performance while also ensuring kids take life lessons from sports that will help them throughout the rest of their lives.”

After school activities and sports are a powerful venue to character formation. Researchers from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture suggest that such instruction needs to bear the marks of the particularity of each community. Professor James Hunter of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia writes, “Spartan and Athenian cultures prescribed different content for character, not least because they had different ideas of the common good…. In other words, moral cultures and the communities in which they are established provide the reasons, restraints, and incentives for conducting life in one way rather than another” (The Death of Character, p. 21, 22). Effective character formation works best when it is grounded in a shared community.