Youth athletics are an exceptional asset in our schools, let me tell you why.
First, Let's dispel a few untruths, shall we?
Myth #1: It's about competing and winning.
Couldn't be less true. Sport is simply the catalyst. It is the vehicle that embodies the means by which we are able to reach into the soul of a young person and gain their attention, their respect, their aspiration. Not every young person mind you, only those who have an inborn passion for competition, and the desire to work toward developing themselves into something better. For some it's athletics, for others it's another interest, like music or science, or leadership. For the purposes of making my point, I will focus on athletics because it is what I have a vast personal experience with.
Myth #2: Only gifted young athletes can benefit.
It is not the final destination of the young athlete that delivers the benefit. Like most life-changing experiences, it is the journey. Actually, it is my belief that in fact, the LESS gifted athletes benefit more from participating than the superstars in most cases. They are the ones who learn life's toughest lessons: sacrifice, patience, dedication, hard work, teamwork, and quite simply: PAIN in the process of ACHIEVEMENT. Watching the competitors that not only compete to win games, but compete to be IN the game are the ones with the biggest hearts, the most dedication and the most admirable personal fortitude of them all. The ones that sit cheering from the bench are by far the most arduous and unrewarded that work just as hard as the starters, with what would appear to be less reward. Ah, but it is NOT less reward! They love the journey. That is the point.
Myth #3: It's not the responsibility of the community to support youth athletics, which serve only a few.
This is the biggest, most frustrating myth of all, and the basis for this blog. The community benefits immensely from youth athletics. Consider:
- There are always several kids on these teams who will freely admit that if it weren't for satisfying the eligibility requirements of the school to maintain a 2.0 grade-point average and have NO failing classes and perfect attendance, they would not even BE IN SCHOOL! If this fact alone does not get your attention then nothing can. What happens to kids who drop out of school? Follow the predictable course of their life and discover how it circles directly back to the taxpayer to support many of these people over many, many years in ways that cost much more than a school athletic program. Many of them cannot gain employment, and if they do, it is not sufficient employment with adequate health benefits. I don't need to break open a box of crayons to draw a picture of the costs involved in that.
- Sadly, many of our young people are living in less-than-deal family situations. They lack support, love and nurturing and a sense of "family" which is the ONLY way that a person can develop into a successful adult. If their family does not supply the support, then often times, their TEAM does. They belong, they are valued, they receive recognition, they feel the thrill of accomplishment, and the satisfaction of working with their team toward important goals. They learn the value of collaboration, accountability and responsibility. They also learn how to be gracious losers, supportive competitors and just good sports.
- The impact of their peers celebrating their success from the bleachers, their community honoring their victories and the lasting memory that leaves is invaluable, and cannot be taken away from them throughout their lives.
- The opportunity for a busy professional parent to have a genuine admiration and respect for their child is a rare and precious gift. How many parents literally ADMIRE their child? How many RESPECT their achievement, their hard work and APPRECIATE the personal cost to the child? Parents of most teenagers often lament the vacuum of communication that happens when their children enter the tumultuous teenage years. They feel they are disconnected and don't even know their child any longer. Often times mutual distrust develops, followed by hostility and antagonism. It is sometimes an overlooked blessing by the parents of young athletes to have animated conversations over the dinner table about their sport, the next game, the big win, the devastating loss, the anticipation of making it to the playoffs. The shared excitement and thrill when WE WIN! The shared burden in the agony of the loss. In what other life-experiences does this occur between teenagers and their parents? Few. They drift apart, sometimes toward sad occurrences and side-roads that usually take years to repair. Youth athletics is often the life raft that shepherds parents and their kids through the stormy sea of teen years, and those are precious years to keep in your heart.
Even if you don't directly support youth athletics, never under-estimate their worth to the community as a whole. Understand why major companies find it worthy of their charitable dollars to contribute to stadiums, fields and uniforms. It's not to support SPORTS. It's to support connection, collaboration and a catalyst for drawing some families and communities together into a common bond that otherwise would not have happened.
That's what youth athletics is about.
Providing a place where a child can pour themselves into it and get a guaranteed return. When they are adults, they won't remember how many games they won or lost. They won't remember the times when they didn't make first string. They won't remember the pain of the long practices. They will remember the gratification, the celebration, the dizzying happiness at of the win, the heartbreaking devastation of the loss and the entire team sobbing collectively at their disappointment. It's the tough-as-nails coach watching his team cut the nets down at the Championship Game with tears streaming down his face. It was a memory of "US" and "WE" and "TOGETHER" and it's a lasting, wonderful thing.
