Columns - PRB+ Magazine

Showing Appreciation

When I remember the times I volunteered to coach one of my kids’ sports teams, what mattered most was when the organization showed appreciation for busy parents like me who stepped up to help. It’s amazing how simple it is to make a volunteer feel like he or she is doing something that matters.

Columns 3 min read

Rolling With The Circumstances

In my junior year of college, I took a night job as a waiter in a four-star restaurant. The tips were phenomenal, and the experience was packed with lessons and growth opportunities.

Columns 6 min read

Listen Up!

Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to moderate a great event hosted by Project Play Western New York. The primary focus was listening to kids who participate in sports and giving them a voice in how athletic programs are structured in their community.

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Columns 3 min read

Putting Physical Health First

My grandpa, Pasquale, and my Uncle Joe (his son) owned a barbershop on the Baldwin Wallace University campus in Berea, Ohio.

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Columns 6 min read

Playgrounds, Playcourts, Playfields

What would we wish for playgrounds—and recreation at large—to achieve for society in the 21st century?

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Columns 4 min read

Feeling The Heat

One of my most memorable sports experiences was during the summer when I finally decided to try out for tackle football. I had played for years with friends on the school fields in our neighborhood, but never on a team with pads and helmets.

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Columns 3 min read

Local Greatness

It was the summer of 1976. Everywhere I looked, there was bicentennial paraphernalia. Gerald Ford was in the White House, and the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon’s resignation was mostly in America’s rearview mirror.

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Columns 6 min read

The Buy-In

Why it matters in youth-sports programs It’s amazing how today’s youth-sports volunteers know much more about coaching kids compared to the era in

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Columns 3 min read

Confidence From Failure—Not Success

You lean over your glowing birthday cake and blow out candles that signify you’ve turned two years old, and somehow (probably with a little assistance from Mom), the candles go out. Everyone around you applauds and smiles.

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Columns 4 min read

The Battle For Balance

One of the most distinct memories from my first coaching experience happened before I ever had a team! I signed my son up for T-ball and volunteered to coach.

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Columns 3 min read

Ushering In Change

In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, the Ohio Department of Commerce began discussing the formalization of programs to regulate the safe operation of underground fuel storage tanks (USTs), in addition to the safe removal of aging, leaking tanks that contained petroleum and other hazardous substances.

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Columns 4 min read

Monday Nights Under The Lights

Athletes and organizations around the country recently celebrated National Girls & Women in Sports Day. It always makes me feel great to see all the social media posts about young girls engaged in sports.

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Columns 3 min read