CTSA History

The Citizenship Through Sports Alliance was formed because of each member organization's concern regarding the current sports culture. Sports culture, by definition, is behavior that includes thought, speech, actions, artifacts, and icons derived from traits of groups associated with sports in America. These traits often mirror societal beliefs, perception, and form. The CTSA believes that sports and the athletes who compete should embody positive characteristics that define respect of self and respect of others.

The Alliance identifies respect of self qualities as: self-esteem, discipline, courage, responsibility, integrity, honesty, ethics, poise, pride, and enthusiasm. Respect of others qualities include: teamwork, loyalty, compassion, tolerance, courtesy, fairness, integrity, and humility.

Officially debuted in 1997, 12 school-college-Olympic and professional sports league organizations comprise the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance (CTSA). This organization was formed from a collective concern about the decline in sportsmanship, ethical conduct in athletics and a general malaise pervasive in the current sports culture. In recognizing these shortcomings, the Alliance seeks to cultivate and nurture a sports culture that values learning respect for self, respect for others and respect for the game by focusing on citizenship.

Citizenship was chosen as the focal point because of its far-reaching effect on society. Sports have historically served as a conduit through which Americans feel part of community and can be an effective vehicle for promoting citizenship.

Because winning has the ability to supercede the values of good conduct, there has been an appreciable decomposition in sportsmanship; the CTSA strives to transcend modern society's obsession with winning at any cost. By elevating athletes to think beyond superficial success, and integrating the values of discipline, loyalty, teamwork, and character, the CTSA believes that a new sports culture can emerge in this new century.