Steel Sports, a social impact organization that inspires youth across America to reach their full potential through sports education and programming, released a report today demonstrating the efficacy of their proprietary Steel Sports Coaching System: The Lasorda Way.

The innovative Steel Sports Coaching System provides high-quality instruction that prioritizes character growth and athletic development. Steel Coaches focus on four Core Values that research shows have reached high awareness among players and their caregivers. These values of Teamwork, Respect, Integrity, and Commitment can prime athletes for college, careers, and long-term success.

• Steel Sports saw a 100% graduation rate for high school senior athletes in the 2022-2023 school year, with 89% continuing on to college, and 52% playing a college sport when enrolled.

• 96% of Steel athletes evaluated their understanding and exemplifying the Core Values as “Good” or “Excellent,” and 100% of parents say their kids are exemplifying the Core Values off the field.

• Steel athletes showed a significant increase in positivity, grit, and growth mindset characteristics compared to the national average. In the report, over 80% of Steel athletes demonstrated appropriate and positive reactions to failures, an enjoyment of challenges, pride in completing difficult tasks, and a focus on effort over outcomes.

To measure the success of their method, Steel Sports looked at over 5,000 player evaluations, coach evaluations, team surveys, focus groups, and parent feedback forums. The organization compared their results to national studies on measures such as positive, mental health characteristics, high school graduation rates, resilience and growth mindset, and prevalence of college-level athletes among graduates.

Warren Lichtenstein, the Executive Chairman of Steel Partners, said, “Tommy Lasorda, our inspiration for creating this program, understood that sports are a fantastic vehicle for building the kind of character and growth that we want to see in the young people we serve. This impact report only highlights how right he was, and we’re thrilled that we can see his legacy in action through the thousands of kids that experience our programs. As he always said, ‘You Gotta Believe,’ and it’s coming true.”

The data indicates that when athletes are drilled in and evaluated on confidence, self-control, positivity, leadership, humility, concentration, openness to constructive criticism, and other positive characteristics, they develop a stronger sense of their core self. In addition to better athletic performance, they experience resilience and growth as young men and women.

About Steel Sports

Headquartered in Somerville, NJ, Steel Sports is a social impact organization with the mission of inspiring youth to reach their potential, on and off the field, by developing them as athletes and people through the Steel Sports Coaching System: The Lasorda Way. Through its "Kids First" approach, Steel Sports is establishing a new standard in youth sports and coaching, forging the next generation of leaders by instilling Steel Sports' core values: Teamwork, Respect, Integrity, and Commitment. Steel Sports creates a positive youth sports experience for over 100,000 athletes each year. For more information, visit www.steelsports.com.

About Steel Partners Holdings, LLP

Steel Partners Holdings L.P. (www.steelpartners.com) (NYSE: SPLP) is a diversified global holding company that owns and operates businesses, including diversified industrial products, energy, defense, supply chain management and logistics, direct marketing, banking, and youth sports.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240305749604/en/