Tucker Center Associate Director, Nicole LaVoi, and affiliated Tucker Center scholar Heather Maxwell are both presenting at the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport Conference in Ottawa, Canada on November 4-7, 2009.

LaVoi's presentation is titled, Coaching Youth Soccer as a Token Female. Maxwell will present research that she and Mary Jo Kane, Ph.D., director of the School of Kinesiology and the Tucker Center, conducted on media portrayals of female athletes, titled Critical Analysis of Consumer Responses to Representations of Women's Sports.

Posted by Austin Stair Calhoun at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tucker Center Associate Director, Nicole LaVoi, will give a workshop to the Minnesota Girls Basketball Coaches Association on Friday, October 23, 6-8:00pm, as part of the We Coach: Educating & Empowering Through Sport initiative.

Posted by Jonathan Sweet at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fall semester's CEHD magazine Connect spotlights a host of Kinesiology faculty and students. Read about Kinesiology student Heather Dorniden, U of M track team star, and how she copes with dueling pressures of competing on the field and achieving success in the classroom: More Than Game.

The important relationship of physical activity to lifelong health and well-being is explored in the article Teaming Up. Tucker Center faculty and associated faculty Daheia Barr-Anderson, Lisa Kihl, Nicole LaVoi, and Jo Ann Buysse, and graduate student Chelsey Thul, are doing research and working on a variety of projects to bring the message of the vital importance of exercise and physical activity to local and international communities.

And in the article The Sporting Life, , Prof. Maureen Weiss and Dr. Nicole LaVoi share their knowledge and research on kids' participation in youth sports.

You can also view the entire issue of Connect.

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Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D, associate director of the Tucker Center, and second-year sport sociology doctoral student and research assistant Austin Calhoun have published the results from their research study "Examining Online Intercollegiate Head Coaches' Biographies: Reproducing or Challenging Heteronormativity and Heterosexism?" in the article "Team Media Guides and College Coaches' Biographies: Who Gets to Have a Personal Life? What Can Online Intercollegiate Coach Biographies Tell Us About Inclusivity and Tolerance of Diverse Sexual Orientations?" in the Women's Sports Foundation Web site's It taks a Team section. The initial study, which included only Big 10 coaches, was expanded to include a nationwide sample of Division I head coaches. It Takes A Team is an educational program sponsored by the Women's Sports Foundation and designed to end homophobia in sport.

Posted by Jonathan Sweet at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D, associate director of the Tucker Center, and U of M hockey player and former Tucker Center summer intern and McNair Scholar Kelli Blankenship are featured on the University of Minnesota's home page in a piece titled Showcasing academics that highlights Blankenship's academic and research accomplishments and LaVoi's mentorship.

Posted by Jonathan Sweet at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D, associate director of the Tucker Center, is the featured author in an Octoiber 1, 2009, Minnesota Women's Press LeaderVoice guest column entitled, "Relational Coach".

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Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, Ph.D., associate professor of Kinesiology, will be among the faculty speaking at the upcoming Twin Cities Sports Medicine Conference on October 2-3. Wiese-Bjornstal will be speaking on "Sport Specialization for Young Athletes." The conference, sponsored by the University of Minnesota Office of Continuing Medical Education, is being held in Minneapolis at the Radisson University Hotel.

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Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, Ph.D., associate professor of Kinesiology, will be in Copenhagen, Denmark from September 16 - 18, 2009 to participate in the International Consensus Conference on "Performance in Sports involving Intense Exercise." Thirty internationally acknowledged researchers together with representatives from the world of sport will take part in this consensus conference sponsored by the University of Copenhagen and Team Denmark, culminating in the production of a series of statements and recommendations that can be used by decision makers in sport, politics, and economy. Wiese-Bjornstal will be speaking on the roles of psychology and socioculture in sport injury risk, response, and recovery in high intensity athletes.

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Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, Ph.D., associate professor in Kinesiology, and Jens Omli, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Child Development and former advisee of Wiese-Bjornstal, have been awarded a $212,000 grant over two years from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs. The grant will implement the International Sport Connection Soccer Coach Education program in collaboration with the Federation of Uganda Football Associations. Wiese-Bjornstal and Omli will travel to Uganda January 2010 and 2011 with a delegation of U.S. coaches. They will host a delegation of Ugandan coaches, who will travel to Minnesota for advanced training this October, and again in October 2010.

Posted by Jonathan Sweet at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nicole LaVoi delivered two sport parent PLAYS (Parents Learning About Youth Sport) workshops to over 600 Eagan Athletic Association parents in August.

For more information about PLAYS, call 612.626.6055. LaVoi will also conduct parent and coach workshops for the Ortonville, MN school district September 2-3, 2009.

Posted by Austin Stair Calhoun at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D., lecturer in Kinesiology and associate director of the Tucker Center, has been invited to be part of a keynote panel at the Up2Us Regional Conference in Los Angeles, CA on Tuesday, June 30th. The conference is sponsored in part by the LA84 Foundation .

LaVoi will discuss the role of coaches in facilitating positive youth development. LaVoi is part of the Up2Us Research Advisory Committee and co-developed an Up2Us research paper on "Sports-based youth development for girls", which will be available by late summer.

Posted by Austin Stair Calhoun at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D., lecturer in Kinesiology and associate director of the Tucker Center, will give a talk to the St. Cloud chapter of the AAUW on Tuesday, May 12. She will discuss research findings from the 2007 Tucker Center Research Report, "Developing Physically Active Girls." For more information on the event, see the article in sctimes.com .

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Tommy Valentini, doctoral student in sport and exercise psychology and advisee of Nicole LaVoi, Tucker Center associate director, will be the Head Men's Tennis Coach at Gustavus Adolphus College starting fall of 2009. Valentini will take the helm from Steve Wilkinson who is retiring from coaching after 39 years. Valentini will also help run the popular Tennis & Life Camps at Gustavus. Congratulations!

Posted by Jonathan Sweet at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D, associate director of the Tucker Center, spoke to members of the Prior Lake Rotary Club on April 15 on behalf of the U of M Alumni Association. LaVoi's talk focused on the work of the Tucker Center including her sport parent research and barriers that prevent girls from being physically active.

Posted by Austin Stair Calhoun at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D, associate director of the Tucker Center, returned to Carleton College to give an invited workshop to student-athletes, coaches and community members titled Mental Toughness Training for Peak Performance.

The workshop was paid in part by a grant from the NCAA. LaVoi was Carleton's Assistant Women's Tennis Coach (1991-1993) before becoming the Head Coach at Wellesley College in 1994.

Posted by Austin Stair Calhoun at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Michael Messner, the Tucker Center's Spring 2009 Distinguished Lecturer, recently published an op-ed, "Let's have more crying in baseball," in the Pasadena Star-News.

A University of Southern California professor of sociology and gender studies, Messner's presentation, titled "You Gotta Be Tough": Challenges and Strategies of Female Coaches in Youth Sports, is based in part on his just-published book It's All For the Kids: Gender, Families, and Youth Sports. The lecture will take place on April 22 from 7-9:00 pm at the Hubert H. Humphrey Center on the U of M's West Bank.

Posted by Austin Stair Calhoun at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jo Ann Buysse, Ph.D., was featured on an MPR segment March 19. She volunteers each Sunday to work with a group of Somali high school and college women who get together to play basketball at the Brian Coyle Center in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. Pictures, along with more information, are available at Minnesota Public Radio.

Posted by Austin Stair Calhoun at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Doctoral student Tommy Valentini will have a chapter titled “Love-Love: A Fresh Start at Finding Value and Virtue in Tennis” in the soon-to-be-released book Tennis and Philosophy. The book is part of the Philosophy and Popular Culture series published by the University Press of Kentucky. Valentini’s chapter discusses the potential of sport to contribute to athlete moral development and the importance of a philosophy that prioritizes winning below other aspects of competition that are within an athlete’s control—namely effort, sportsmanship, and positive attitude. Valentini is advised by Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D, Associate Director of the Tucker Center.

Posted by Austin Stair Calhoun at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D., gave a hockey parent workshop on March 7, 2009 held in conjunction with a girls' hockey clinic. The first-ever clinic and parent workshop was done in conjunction with the WCHA Women's Hockey Tournament, organized by the U of M Sport Business Institute.

Posted by Austin Stair Calhoun at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A presentation by Maureen Weiss, Ph.D., Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, Ph.D., and Nicole LaVoi, PhD., on Physical Activity as a Context for Youth Development  is now available online. To view their lecture, visit the University of Minnesota's Extension website.

Posted by Austin Stair Calhoun at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Read Nicole LaVoi's tips on motivation for coaches in the latest issue of the Minnesota State High School Coaches Association newsletter.

Posted by Austin Stair Calhoun at 6:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nicole LaVoi Ph.D., associate director of the Tucker Center, will deliver two separate coach workshops on "The Psychology of Coaching: Effective Motivational Strategies" in February, one to the Minnesota State Softball and another to the Synchronized Swimming Coaches Associations.

Posted by Austin Stair Calhoun at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, Ph.D., associate professor in Kinesiology, has been appointed to the 2009 Science Board of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Executive Director Melissa Johnson wrote, "Dr. Wiese-Bjornstal was selected to serve on this board due to the significant contributions she has made to the research and science of physical activity, fitness, and health. The PCPFS staff and council members look to this board for recommendations in the areas of program development and evaluation."

Posted by mfahrenz at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Maureen Weiss, Ph.D., professor of kinesiology and co-director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, and David Goodman, professor of kinesiology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C., received a $90,000 grant over three years from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Continue reading "Weiss awarded three-year grant" »

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