The Bo Jackson Sports and Fitness Center on the Nike campus will be the site for this week's NAIA Champions of Character clinic.
Nike to Host XC Champions of Character Clinic
PORTLAND, Ore. – Student-athletes from across the country competing in this week’s NAIA Cross Country National Championships at Fort Vancouver will carve time out of their visits to mentor students from a North Portland high school as part of the NAIA’s signature “Champions of Character” initiative.
Local organizers of the championship meet, which is co-hosted by Concordia University and the Cascade Collegiate Conference, have created a unique Champions of Character session that will include the entire student body from De La Salle North Catholic High School. The nearly 200 De La Salle students will make a field trip to the Nike World Headquarters on Thursday, Nov. 19, where they will be involved in activities and messages led by NAIA student-athletes centered on the five core values of Champions of Character.
The event, which will take place inside the Bo Jackson Center, will be followed by a Nike-sponsored lunch for the participants.
“We feel it is important to give something back to the community here in Northeast Portland as part of the cross country national championships,” said Matt English, Director of Athletics at Concordia. “We are excited that the student-athletes will have an opportunity to teach the core values of the Champions of Character program to young people in an area of Portland where many youth are underserved. We are proud to partner with De La Salle, an inner-city school that shares our mission to develop tomorrow’s community leaders, and we are very thankful to Nike for helping provide an extraordinary opportunity for these deserving youth.”
Said Dave Haglund, commissioner of the Cascade Collegiate Conference: “Our Champions of Character outreach effort is a critical component to the entire championship week experience. We are grateful to Concordia University, Nike and De La Salle North Catholic High School for creating such a unique and interactive format in which to reinforce these important messages.”
An NAIA-based non-profit organization whose mission is to change the culture of sport, Champions of Character is designed to instill an understanding of key character values and provide practical tools for student-athletes, coaches and parents to use in modeling exemplary character traits.
De La Salle North Catholic High School provides a rigorous, faith-based education for youth in North/Northeast Portland, where more than half the students do not achieve the minimum standards for state benchmarks by the eighth grade. Each student works one day a week through the unique Corporate Internship Program to help defray the cost of their education. This program promotes self-sufficiency by providing career and life-skills training, personal mentoring and paid employment.
The NAIA’s Champions of Character program has established five core values – integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, and servant leadership – that go well beyond the playing field to the daily decisions of our youth. These character values help young people – and those associated with their development – make good choices in all aspects of their lives and reflect the true spirit of competition.
As part of its nationwide outreach efforts, the NAIA conducts student-led Champions of Character sessions in every locale where NAIA national championship events are held. The cross country championships are being held in the West for the first time.
The Champions of Character event is closed to the media.