ORANGE BEACH, Alabama — While competing for a national championship, 16 teams representing NAIA schools from across the nation devoted time to leaving a positive impact on the local community.

“Our second championship year in Orange Beach was another positive experience for our sixteen participating teams; and through our NAIA Champions of Character school programs early in the week and the donations to the Christian Service Center we hope the positive impact made by our student-athletes continues to grow,” said Scott McClure of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), which recently concluded its 2011 Men’s Soccer Championship presented by The Sports Medicine Center at the Orthopaedic Group, P.C. and Encore Rehabilitation, Inc.

As an integral part of the NAIA’s commitment to give back to the local community and to serving as positive role models, the student-athletes visited both the Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Elementary Schools, where they conducted soccer clinics with the physical education classes and talked to the younger students about integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship and servant leadership.

The positive impact continued at the semi-finalist banquet as representatives from the Christian Service Center received a large donation of non-perishable food items that will help this organization feed about 2,000 local families during the holidays.

Conceived in 2000 by the NAIA, Champions of Character is designed to instill an understanding of character values in sport and provide practical tools for student-athletes, coaches and parents to use in modeling exemplary character traits. Champions of Character is a nonprofit organization with the mission to change to culture of sports and seeks to replace the current cycle of cheating, trash talking, taunting and out of control behaviors found in today’s sports culture with integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship and servant leadership. For more information, visit www.championsofcharacter.org.

After hosting two years of the NAIA Men’s Soccer National Championship, Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Sports Commission - along with the University of Mobile – will host the 2012 and 2013 Women’s Soccer National Championships to Orange Beach, Ala. The 2012 National Championship is scheduled for Nov. 26 – Dec. 1, with the 2013 tournament taking place Dec. 2 – 7.

For information on this national championship, visit www.naia.org.