Oct. 24, 2005

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - This winter, school coaches, athletic directors and recreation league coaches have a new resource for dealing with trash talking, fighting between players, difficult parents and athletes suspected of using steroids. Learning Through Sports (www.learningthroughsports.com) -- publisher of online educational programs using sports -- will launch STAR Coaching in March 2006 for schools and teams that need training materials to deal with these increasingly prevalent issues.

STAR helps coaches bring good character and good sportsmanship back onto the playing field with real-world tactics for addressing poor sportsmanship, methods for setting behavioral expectations, and inspiration for modifying their own behavior. It also teaches coaches about the warning signs of steroid use and ways to teach athletes about the dangers of using performance-enhancing drugs.

"Our young people are seeing displays of poor sportsmanship by some professional athletes, and by many parents at their children's games," said Grant Taeff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association. "A program that can simulate a real-life situation and allow athletes or their coaches to learn how to stop and think and then act appropriately is very helpful. Getting experience in a computer program allows them to practice in a safe environment and learn from their mistakes."

The release of STAR Coaching comes at a critical time and fills a need for schools and sports teams. In an 18-month study, Learning Through Sports researchers found that less than one percent of schools are engaged in formal sportsmanship education programs, instead relying on coaches to instinctively know how to keep their players' behavior in check.

"Sportsmanship is about attitude and behavior," said Brian Shulman, founder and CEO of Learning Through Sports. "STAR is based on the research premise that behavioral change requires positive role modeling and observing the right behaviors displayed by coaches and parents." STAR Coaching equips coaches to teach student athletes how to think like good sports using tactics that are easily retained and transferred into real-life situations. Included are tools to deal with confrontational parents, methods to display respect for officials, and how to deal with players who have a win-at-all-costs mentality. The steroid module includes training on how to recognize the signs of steroid use and methods to address and stop the abuse. A parental module can be used for pre-season meetings to enlist parental help in dealing with these issues and to establish expectations for acceptable behavior. Online progress monitoring allows schools to measure results with pre and post-use tests.

The complete STAR series includes versions for elementary schools, middle schools and high schools, and for coaches. High School STAR, a role-playing simulation program for 9-12th graders faced with temptations of using performance-enhancing drugs -- will be available in March 2006. Each version of STAR includes motivational messages about good behavior from sports celebrities and peers and has been funded in part by the two major college athletic leagues, the Mountain West Conference and the Southeastern Conference.

All of the versions are based on "The Conditions of Learning" by Robert Gagne, Ph.D. and were created after an extensive 18-month research study. Through ongoing research and facilitated by its web-based delivery, STAR is continually updated with relevant information and research. "We developed the STAR series for the schools because they are seeing negative behaviors more frequently at a younger age," adds Mr. Shulman. "Education starts at home, but children need additional reinforcement because of the overwhelming negative influence of pro athletes on television."

About Learning Through Sports
Learning Through Sports (LTS) is an educational publisher of interactive sports games that teach core subject areas and behavioral skills to students in grades K-12. LTS flagship products are Kid's College, a web-based reading/language arts and math skills intervention program and STAR Sportsmanship, a role-playing program for students, coaches and parents that teaches how to make good decisions on and off the playing field and includes information on how to avoid steroids abuse. Learning Through Sports' team of educators and researchers have captured the motivational factors of sports and videogames and designed interactive software that excite and engage students in learning. Today, LTS programs have been used by over 5 million students in over 2,500 schools across the nation. For more information, call 866-552-9192.

LTS partners with the award-winning LetterPress Software of Logan, Utah, the instructional design team behind the STAR series.