Editor’s Note

Welcome to Volume Four of IMPUMELELO and another issue of the journal. This volume contains a number of new features. A couple of them are planned to be regular and ongoing elements of the journal. The primary focus of this issue will be more sporadic. I explain below.

First, I want to welcome Jenny McArdle as the new Assistant Editor for the journal. She is a graduate student in the International Development Studies at Ohio University, and a soccer player. She has writing, journalistic, and editorial experience and is very interested in the intersection of sport and development. Her responsibilities will include, among other things, conducting the interviews of persons featured in the journal and developing profiles of organizations we want to highlight. I feel she is a valuable asset; I am pleased to have her assist with the journal.

Second and with this issue, we initiate our interview feature. The focus for this element is Paul Goodrich. He is an all-American soccer player, who did his undergraduate work at Wittenberg University and his graduate studies at Ohio University. A Peace Corp Volunteer in Togo, he became interested in how sport can assist in development, especially among the young people in Africa. Jenny’s interview with him reveals how he developed this interest into an action by creating his non-governmental organization, African Sports Outreach (ASO). I am confident you will find Paul’s story and the work of ASO to be inspiring and uplifting.

In this interview, we have woven the ASO profile within Paul’s interview; they are very closely intertwined and we felt they should be together. In future issues we plan to do the organization profile separately from interviews.

Third, this issue also contains a book review. While this is not a new feature, we think it should be a regular one and want to begin to incorporate a book review section as frequently as possible. In her role as Assistant Editor, Jenny wrote this review. If you have suggestions for books that are appropriate for review in IMPUMELELO, I would welcome suggestions.

Fourth and finally, the primary focus of this issue is on student research. Tyler Spencer is a graduate on the University of Virginia, and an active advocate for using sport, especially soccer, for fighting AIDS. His work is featured on a CBS news report, see http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4910590n. His commitment and passion for this work represents good hope for future sports and development activities. We will use student research for focus in future issues as we identify appropriate possibilities.

I hope you will find the variety of features in this issue interesting and informative. The next two volumes of the journal will feature a special editor, and highlight articles from the Sports History Conference in South Africa in 2008. There are more changes to come.

Bob J. Walter
General Editor
walter@ohio.edu