Thursday, May 1, 2008

What I would like my kids to learn from sports

We are in the middle of baseball season. I love baseball, always have. I remember as a kid our parents would take us to Angels' games several times a summer. I played fast-pitch softball.

Sports are good for many reasons, but in my book, the most important reason is to teach good sportsmanship. In life we all need to be good winners and good losers. We need to know when to cheer for our opponents. There are times when that is appropriate; the right thing to do.

I cringe when I am at some high school sports events and hear the kids 'cheering' negatively, giving the other team or their fans a hard time. My blood starts to boil, even, when there are no parents or administrators correcting that behavior. When we were kids the school wouldn't have let us do it, much less our parents. Now I see parents participating in demeaning the other team. I hear about parents and coaches going to blows on the baseball field. It makes me angry and sad.

Then I read something like this: (Shout out to STB for the link!)

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/24392612/

Go ahead. I'll wait.

This is what I want my kids to learn about sports. This is what I want my kids to do. A split-second decision- the RIGHT decision, made by competitors, without thinking about the negative consequences for their own team. The Central Washington University women should be given a medal, lots of media attention, I don't know- anything and everything- for making me believe in young people in sports again.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for a good cry! Our baseball season starts on Monday and I am now forwarding that email to ALL of the coaches. I'll be posting it on my blog and blogging over our season in terms of sportsman ship.

Anonymous said...

hm, can you edit my post...I do know that sportsmanship is one word, not a cruising vessel!!! My link didn't work either, oh well, I'll fix it here!

I guess that's what the preview button is for!

Sam said...

One ticket on the Sportsman Ship, please! ;)

It's a great lesson, and it should be mandatory reading for all coaches and parents, not to mention athletes, everywhere.

Let's hear it for the right thing.

Anonymous said...

Thanks bro and sis combo for this link. I back linked to it from my blog, very timely for us.

Keetha Broyles said...

I heard about that incident last night on ESPN. It is an AMAZING story.

I'm right with you on the negative "cheering" I HATE it.

BYW - - - Central MI FB team was quite impressive last season too!!