Team Ice Breakers

Icebreaker #1 – Player Interviews

Separate players into groups of two or three. Try to match players with others they do not know. Each person in the group should interview one of the other group members and ask them the interview questions. After all interviews have taken place, the answers should be presented to the group by the interviewer. Groups of three are preferable for older players since they must work together to determine who interviews whom.

Sample Interview Questions
Change the interview questions to make them more relevant for age group and sport. Try to choose questions that might help players identify with other members of the team.

Name?

Age & Grade?

School?

Favorite sports hero?

Favorite sport (other than the one now playing)?

Favorite television show?

Favorite musician/band?

Icebreaker #2 – Player Trivia Challenge

Separate players into groups of three or four and let each group work together to answer the following questions. Each group writes its answers on a piece of paper. After all questions are asked, answers are given and each group gets one point for a correct answer.

Sample Trivia Questions

Feel free to change the trivia questions as desired to make them more relevant for age group and sport. Try to choose questions that might have a couple of different answers to get kids more active in discussion.

1. Who is the all-time NBA total points leader?

A. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
B. Karl Malone
C. Michael Jordan

2. Who is the all-time NBA leader in points per game?

A. Wilt Chamberlain
B. Michael Jordan
C. Shaquille O’Neal

3. Who led the NFL in passing touchdowns for three consecutive years starting in 1995?

A. Kurt Warner
B. Steve Young
C. Brett Favre

4. Whose record did Emmitt Smith break to become the all time leading rusher in the NFL?

A. Barry Sanders
B. Walter Payton
C. Jim Brown

5. Who is the all-time MLB leader in home runs?

A. Barry Bonds
B. Hank Aaron
C. Babe Ruth

6. Who holds the record for pitching the most innings in MLB?

A. Nolan Ryan
B. Jim Galvin
C. Cy Young

7. After Wayne Gretzky, who holds the record for the most points in the NHL?

A. Mark Messier
B. Gordie Howe
C. Brett Hull

8. Who holds the record for the most games played in the NHL?

A. Wayne Gretzky
B. Gordie Howe
C. Ray Bourque

Answers:

1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 38,387.  The leader order is the same as the answers.
2. Michael Jordan with an average of 30.1.
3. Brett Favre with 38, 39 and 35 respectively.
4. Walter Payton
5. Hank Aaron with 755 from 1954-1976.
6. Cy Young with 7,356.
7. Gordie Howe with 1,850.
8. Gordie Howe with 1,767. Gretzy is #11 on the list with 1,487.

Promoting Better Health for Young People Through Physical Activity and Sports

A Report to the President From the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Education

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Our nations young people are, in large measure, inactive, unfit, and increasingly overweight. In the long run, this physical inactivity threatens to reverse the decades-long progress we have made in reducing death from cardiovascular diseases and to devastate our national health care budget. In the short run, physical inactivity has contributed to an unprecedented epidemic of childhood obesity that is currently plaguing the United States. The percentage of young people who are overweight has doubled since 1980.

Physical activity has been identified as one of our nations leading health indicators in Healthy People 2010, the national health objectives for the decade. Enhancing efforts to promote participation in physical activity and sports among young people is a critical national priority. That is why, on June 23, 2000, President Clinton issued an Executive Memorandum directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Education to work together to identify and report within 90 days on strategies to promote better health for our nations youth through physical activity and fitness. The President concluded his directive: “By identifying effective new steps and strengthening public-private partnerships, we will advance our efforts to prepare the nations young people for lifelong physical fitness.”

To increase their levels of physical activity and fitness, young people can benefit from

• Families who model and support participation in enjoyable physical activity.
• School programs – including quality, daily physical education; health education; recess; and extracurricular activities that help students develop the knowledge, attitudes, skills, behaviors, and confidence to adopt and maintain physically active lifestyles, while providing opportunities for enjoyable physical activity.
• After-school care programs that provide regular opportunities for active, physical play.
• Youth sports and recreation programs that offer a range of developmentally appropriate activities that are accessible and attractive to all young people.
• A community structural environment that makes it easy and safe for young people to walk, ride bicycles, and use close-to-home physical activity facilities.
• Media campaigns that help motivate young people to be physically active.

Strategies

The following strategies are all designed to promote lifelong participation in enjoyable and safe physical activity and sports.

1. Include education for parents and guardians as part of youth physical activity promotion initiatives.
   Help all children, from pre-kindergarten through grade 12, to receive quality, daily physical education.
2. Help all schools to have certified physical education specialists; appropriate class sizes; and the facilities, equipment, and supplies needed to deliver quality, daily physical education.
3. Publicize and disseminate tools to help schools improve their physical education and other physical activity programs.
4. Enable state education and health departments to work together to help schools implement quality, daily physical education and other physical activity programs.
5. Enable more after-school care programs to provide regular opportunities for active, physical play.
6. Help provide access to community sports and recreation programs for all young people.
7. Enable youth sports and recreation programs to provide coaches and recreation program staff with the training they need to offer developmentally appropriate, safe, and enjoyable physical activity experiences for young people.
8. Enable communities to develop and promote the use of safe, well-maintained, and close-to-home sidewalks, crosswalks, bicycle paths, trails, parks, recreation facilities, and community designs featuring mixed-use development and a connected grid of streets.
9. Implement an ongoing media campaign to promote physical education as an important component of a quality education and long-term health.
10. Monitor youth physical activity, physical fitness, and school and community physical activity programs in the nation and each state.

Implementation

Full implementation of the strategies recommended in this report will require the commitment of resources, hard work, and creative thinking from many partners in federal, state, and local governments; non-governmental organizations; and the private sector. Only through extensive collaboration and coordination can resources be maximized, strategies integrated, and messages reinforced. Development or expansion of a broad, national coalition to promote better health through physical activity and sports is an important first step toward collaboration and coordination. A foundation to support the promotion of physical activity could complement the work of the coalition and play a critical role in obtaining the resources needed to help our young people become physically active and fit. The 10 strategies and the process for facilitating their implementation described in this report provide the framework for our children to rediscover the joys of physical activity and to incorporate physical activity as a fundamental building-block of their present and future lives.