Mundell wins national coaching award

Sequoia Pathway Academy cheer coach Beth Mundell has been named one of 50 finalists for the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) Double-Goal Coach® Awards presented by Liberty Mutual Insurance.

Mundell is one of only four women finalists, the only cheer coach and the only Arizona nominee. The finalists were chosen from hundreds of nominations and testimonials submitted from 43 states.

The award honors youth and high school sports coaches whose first goal is winning, and whose second, more-important goal is teaching life lessons through sports.

“Becoming one of our finalists is a great tribute to all 50 of these coaches, considering there are four million youth sports coaches nationwide,” said Jim Thompson, PCA’s founder and executive director, and author of “The Double-Goal Coach.” “No matter which of these coaches win our awards, they already are winners, and so are the youth athletes they coach.”

Mundell is married and the mother of two daughters, ages 5 and 11, who are both involved in the cheer program. She has been a Maricopa resident for two and a half years.

Known as “Coach M” to the girls, she instructs mini-cheer and junior cheer squads for Desert Sun Performing Arts, as well as the junior, senior, senior competition, junior varsity and varsity cheer squads at Sequoia Pathway Academy. Her squads will be performing at the Tortosa Easter Festival on April 23 and the Salsa Festival on April 30.

“I am so incredibly honored to have been nominated for this award, and to be one of the 50 national finalists is humbling. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to do what I love to do. Not many people get to live their dream,” said Mundell.

“I have an amazing group of girls and boys who give 110% each and every time. And when I get to see a cheerleader master a new skill, the excitement and joy is awesome. All of my squads know, we never say, ‘I can’t,’ because anything is possible!”

Award winners, to be announced later this month, receive $250 in cash, a plaque and recognition in PCA’s publications, website and media campaigns, as well as within the Liberty Mutual Responsible Sports Program at ResponsibleSports.com.

Founded as a non-profit within the Stanford University Athletic Department in 1998, Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) has the mission of “transforming youth sports so sports can transform youth.”

PCA’s partnership network includes more than 1,700 youth sports organizations, cities and schools. In 2011, PCA will conduct roughly 1,300 live, group workshops across the U.S., while assisting tens of thousands of other individuals via online workshops at www.PositiveCoach.org.

Editor’s note:  Mundell was notified Friday that she is a PCA award winner.

Submitted photo