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Some Morgantown area families and WVU students face tough times throughout the year and especially during the holidays and cold weather. This holiday season, the CPASS Dean’s Advisory Board is coordinating a food drive to help fill the shelves of surrounding food banks. Please help by donating non-perishable food items from Monday, Nov. 16 through December 11. Bins are placed throughout the CPASS building. For more information, contact Taylor Opperhauser,  taopperhauser@mix.wvu.edu.

Please consider donating the following non-perishable items for the drive: canned beans, rice, tuna, chicken, sardines, grains, pasta, tomato paste or personal care items.

Numerous CPASS graduates and one doctoral student presented at the SHAPE PETE Conference in Atlanta at the end of October, including CPASS faculty Eloise Elliott, James Hannon and Stephen Harvey.

Tyler Goad, current doctoral student, discussed PETEtechnology applications. Recent doctoral program grads, Luciana Braga and Kacey DiGiacinto, presented while graduates Rachel Gurvitch, Georgia State University, Beth Hersman Khalaf, Wright State University, Tony Pritchard, Georgia Southern, and Scott Townsend and Derek   Mohr, Appalachian State University, also presented. 

On the last day of summer, CPASS students and faculty turned out at 5:15 a.m. to support the first Morgantown Marathon. Dave Kerns, Head Football Athletic Trainer and part time CPASS faculty member, organized volunteer water stations for the two day event, September 19 – 20.

Kerns was a last minute recruit for the series of runs, including the Inaugural Mile, 8K, ½ Marathon and Full Marathon. He worked his “bye” weekend making sure that runners on Saturday and Sunday had fluids. He supplied cups, coolers and powdered Gatorade for the more than 1100 runners during the marathon. Kerns demonstrated to the students the importance of work ethics and patient-centered principles.

Three Olympians will visit the West Virginia University campus next week as part of the 2015 National Coaching Conference hosted by the WVU College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences.

Edward Etzel, 1984 Rifle and gold medalist and West Virginia University faculty member, Melinda Rhoads, 1984 Team Handball and 4th place in the Games and Clarissa Chun, 2008 and 2012 wrestling and bronze medalist in London, will attend the opening reception of the conference June 9 from 6 to 9 p.m. in Hall B at the Waterfront Place Hotel.

They’ll keep moving for another year in McDowell County as McDowell CHOICES, an initiative of the West Virginia University College of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences, has received a one-year continuation grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The USDA continuation grant will allow McDowell CHOICES – coordinated health opportunities involving communities, environments and schools – to continue offering expanded access to physical activity to McDowell County students and their families, primarily by offering more after school physical activity programs. The program was created with a $204,000 grant from the Highmark Foundation.

The WVU Sport and Exercise Psychology program will host Dr. Mitch Abrams, Friday, April 3, 2015, 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. in the CPASS building, room 103. As an expert in effective anger management practices in athletes, Dr. Abrams’ presentation will focus on problems with anger management in sport along with the belief that anger is a problem and it must be eradicated in order to be successful. Abrams believes that the work starts with normalizing anger, teaching one to own it, and then learning how to adjust the intensity of it to the level that would be most helpful for the task at hand, whether in sport or in other aspects of one’s life.

Abrams recognizes that many people have different degrees of anger problems and it manifests itself accordingly. His approach for anger management training works best with individuals who have skills deficits and are motivated to become more empowered and effective in their lives. According to Abrams, anger management is about both performance enhancement and transgression reduction.

More than 470 educators will attend the March 14 physical activity training hosted   by CPASS and the WV Department of Education. This state-wide effort provides workshops focused on improving physical activity in primary schools.

The trainings are intended to better prepare K-8 teachers and school administrators to address recent policy changes committed to improving the culture of physical activity in schools. It provides beneficial resources to incorporate more physical activity in the school day, training on comprehensive school physical activity programming and innovative ways to incorporate physical activity into the academic setting. Studies consistently show that students who get more physical activity perform better academically and have fewer behavioral issues in school.

 Thomas Moran, Ph.D., CAPE, and Sarah Carson Sackett, Ph.D., both of James Madison University, will visit the WVU campus. Carson Sackett will speak on Tuesday, March 10, 11 a.m. – noon, CPASS building, room 101, to discuss the techniques of coaching.

Moran will speak on Wednesday, March 11, 9:30 – 10:45 a.m., CPASS building room 101 and focus on the meeting the needs of athletes of all abilities. Both Moran and Carson Sackett will present a panel discussion from 3 – 4 p.m. on Wednesday.

The CPASS Athletic Coaching Education program has partnered with West Virginia University Club Sports to offer sports conditioning sessions for club teams. The sessions are run by graduate students and supervised by Dr. Clayton Kuklick, CPASS teaching assistant professor. 

Mylan Park Elementary School is officially ready to kick off the new “Reading and Riding” program. After a successful fundraiser, ten stationary exercise bicycles were secured by the school in early January to promote the addition of core content into the physical education program. 

The sport management on-campus graduate program at WVU’s College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences has been listed as the 11th best sport management program world-wide, and number three in the United States, according to a global ranking and rating agency evaluating masters and MBA programs.

Students from all of McDowell County’s public schools gathered on October 23, 2014 at the Welch Armory to celebrate and demonstrate physical activities provided by the McDowell CHOICES Project, sponsored by CPASS and the Highmark Foundation. At the Let’s Move McDowell Physical Activity Celebration, more than 500 students performed short physical activity demonstrations representing new physical activities that have taken place at their schools this year.

Most college spring breaks involve high temperatures and sunny climes, but CPASS is offering a twist on the typical spring break destination. The College has announced a 2015 trip to Sweden as part of the College’s study abroad program.

 WVU College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences hosted its second annual student and faculty research day on April 24 at the Coliseum, lower level. The event involved input from students, faculty members and the College’s Visiting Committee members who were on campus for their spring meeting. CPASS students and faculty members displayed research that they have presented at state, national and international conferences during the academic year to allow them to share projects with colleagues and guests.

West Virginia University hosted a series of individual, personalized ceremonies for each school and college at a variety of venues on the Evansdale Campus and around Morgantown, including the WVU Coliseum, Creative Arts Center and Morgantown Event Center from May 9-11.