“With
millions of children enrolled each year, sports programs can
be a valuable national resource. When programs guarantee fun
and equal opportunity, children win because sports builds
character and a healthy lifestyle.
Parents win because wholesome athletic competition provides
children lifelong memories shared with family and friends.
Communities win because
values learned in athletics shape solid citizens. America
wins because these values enrich a generation of children
long after the scores of distant games have faded from memory.
Kids FIRST In Sports will hasten
these victories by empowering concerned parents and coaches
to embrace the core principle -- that the mission of youth
sports is to serve the best interests of every boy and girl
who seeks to participate.”
Doug Abrams, a law professor
at the University of Missouri, has coached youth ice hockey
at all age levels since 1968. He graduated summa cum laude
from Wesleyan University, where he was elected to Phi Beta
Kappa and won the Scholar-Athlete Award. He earned his law
degree from Columbia University Law School, and he is a member
of the Missouri and New York Bars.
Prof. Abrams teaches juvenile law and
family law. He has written four books, including Children
and the Law, which is required reading in nearly seventy law
schools. Three Supreme Court decisions quote from his writing.
His youth sports and juvenile justice columns appear regularly
in national newspapers, and he is frequently interviewed on
radio and television.
With his book royalties, Doug has created
the "Happiness For Health" program at the University
of Missouri Children’s Hospital. HFH is a permanent
endowment that provides toys, stuffed animals and games the
sick and injured children can play with and then take home.
HFH also provides parties for children hospitalized on their
birthdays and other special occasions.
A goaltender at Wesleyan, Doug set an
Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III record for
most saves in a game (64), and he became the first Wesleyan
hockey player named to the weekly ECAC All-East Team. He has
coached with a USA Hockey National Championship team, two
New York State Championship teams, travel and house league
teams, and learn-to-skate programs. As goaltending coach at
a summer camp in Connecticut and Rhode Island for twenty years,
he instructed more than 2500 goalies. In 1989, he founded
a Missouri youth hockey program; during his eleven years as
president, the program grew from nineteen players to 180 while
enrolling every interested child, encouraging beginners, stressing
sportsmanship, providing need-based scholarships, and fully
involving each child in every practice and game.
Doug’s coaching stresses character
development. Each year, his high school team has voted to
hold an "Anti-Drug Awareness Night," an "Anti-Alcohol
Night," and a "University Children’s Hospital
Night." Fans donate stuffed animals for the hospital,
and the players visit the patients and distribute the toys.
In 2001, the team also held a special Night to raise donations
for charities supporting victims of the September 11 terrorist
attacks. The players’ community service is a local tradition,
and a newspaper recently called Doug’s team "a
philanthropic organization on skates."
As a member of the Missouri Bar
Commission on Children and the Law, Doug has drafted fifteen
health and safety laws, including comprehensive legislation
to protect abandoned newborns. In 1994, he received the Meritorious
Service to the Children of America Award from the National
Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. The Missouri
Bar Foundation has honored him for his "extraordinary
public service and contributions to justice." At the
Law School, he has received the Administration of Justice
Award, the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, and the
Professor-of-the-Year Award voted by the students.
