The PCA Blog - New England

100+ "Sweat for Good" At Harvard Stadium Stampede

by Beth O'Neill Maloney

08.23.2017

More than 100 people came to Harvard Stadium to “sweat for good” in the first annual Harvard STADIUM STAMPEDE to benefit Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) on August 10. Two hours later, 100 people had a new appreciation of how sports, and sweating side-by-side, brings people together and develops character. Sweaty, tired, and part of the PCA community, everyone went home with a nice-looking New Balance tech tee custom-made for the event, discount codes from Sweat Cosmetics and SplitFit, drinks from Wegman’s, and a yummy RXBar. Some went home with other great prizes--a Whoop, a football autographed by Gronk (courtesy of Gronk Fitness), gift certificates from Marathon Sports, a football autographed by the 6 college coaches with teams playing Football at Fenway in November, and hats from New Balance.

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PCA’s Associate Board, and a host of volunteers and sponsors made the incredible event possible. As people gathered, Mack Ascanio, aka DJ Gambito, revved up the crowd with music on the stadium sound system. He paused for four upbeat videos from PCA + Harvard featuring Harvard Basketball Coach Tommy Amaker , Positive Tracks explaining their “sweat for good” mission, from New Balance “This is Boston” showcasing Boston and its athletes, and from Whoop highlighting their strap’s potential to unlock performance by monitoring recovery. When the music resumed the Harvard Stadium video board images alternated between kids playing sports and thank you messages to the teams and sponsors, plus a birthday message to seven-year-old Tommy Fay who ran more than his share of stadium sections!

Dr. Gevvie Stone, who trained on the stadium steps on her way to becoming an Olympic silver medalist and emergency room physician, kicked off the evening with words of inspiration (and went on to run all 37 sections in the evening’s fastest time). Firing up the crowd next were under-23 event co-captains Alyssa Nugent and Maddie Maloney who gave a shout-out to all participants, especially PCA’s non-profit “sweat for good” partner Positive Tracks which matched every dollar they raised plus $23 for each participant under age 23. Kristina Sadlo from SplitFit and Terrance Turner from Turner Sports Training ran a dynamic warm up on the field, and then sent the group up into the stadium. Then the microphone went to the evening’s dynamic MC, Rachel Wood PCA Trainer and former Boston Breakers player. Rachel kept time and brought everyone back together to celebrate and hand out prizes, including a pair of red boxing gloves to the grittiest male and female competitors, Gary Cherry and Carmen Sorrentino. Winning the prize for team spirit were two teams, Team Deloitte for having the greatest number of participants, and Team Bosse Performance for raising the most money, thank you Billy McNamara.

 

Scaling the stadium stairs and stepping it up for PCA, people came together as they ran, walked, or limped up to the 12 character banners atop the steps in 12 of the stadium’s 37 sections. The banners, courtesy of AMI Graphics, spelled out --CHARACTER, TEAMWORK, CONFIDENCE, DISCIPLINE, LEADERSHIP, SACRIFICE, RESPECT, FOCUS, RESILIENCE, GRIT, and finally JOY. The banners, which matched the back of the event t-shirt, combined with the participants’ efforts, exemplified the power of sports to build character.  Whatever team participants were on--Bosse Performance, BB&N, DanceFit Studio, Deloitte, Friends of PCA, Grealy Girls, Middlebury Women’s Soccer, Newton North, Positive Tracks, WBZ-TV/CBS Boston—or if they came solo, they all became part of Team PCA.

The proceeds from the First Annual Harvard STADIUM STAMPEDE will help PCA-New England change the youth sports experience by keeping kids in the game to build the kind of character it takes to meet a challenge like those stadium steps.


Having sweat together for PCA at the first Harvard STADIUM STAMPEDE, PCA hopes that every participant will come back in the summer of 2018, with friends, to support PCA’s mission to develop Better Athletes, Better People through sports done right.

Special thanks to all the event sponsors for making the 2017 STADIUM STAMPEDE an unforgettable, positive “sweat for good” event for PCA.

Thank you to our sponsors:

Harvard
Positive Tracks
New Balance
AMI Graphics
DJ Gambito, aka Mack Ascanio
Gronk Fitness
Marathon Sports
RXBar
SplitFit
Sweat Cosmetics
Turner Sports Training
WBZ/CBS Boston.com
Wegman’s
WHOOP

for making the 2017 STADIUM STAMPEDE an unforgettable, positive sweat event for PCA!

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Beth O’Neill Maloney became the Executive Director – New England in January 2016. A native of the Boston area, she is excited to help PCA accomplish its mission of providing youth and high school athletes with a positive, character-building sports experience, developing Better Athletes, Better People, throughout New England.