As a new year of high school sports gets underway, and as a new crop of seniors and freshmen (and everywhere in between) take the field, the court and the pool, I can’t help but think about the possibilities that a new year presents.
I think about the potential success of each of the teams and the potential success of individual athletes. I think about how much I enjoyed my time playing high school sports, and how much I enjoyed watching my own children play.
I also think about how fleeting those moments of only four short years of playing high school sports truly are, and how precious that time will become as these athletes go on with their lives.
One of the aspects of high school sports that I have always found to be truly endearing is that athletes put everything they have into playing for the love of the game. They play for the joy, they play for their team, and they play for their school. Parents, of course, are their biggest fans, and nothing brings the community together more than high school sporting events.
With all of that good, it saddens me to see when some lose sight of what high school sports are truly all about.
Above and far beyond the winning and losing and really, the sport itself, is what young people learn from being part of a team.
Participating in all aspects of a sports’ team teaches us valuable life lessons, which is truly what is important about the whole experience. By practicing and playing, our sons and daughters learn about discipline, selflessness, teamwork and camaraderie. They learn commitment, sportsmanship and tolerance. One of the most important lessons they learn is how to deal with failure, disappointment and hopefully how to learn from mistakes and losses.
Let’s face it, the real world awaits as soon as our kids walk away from the hallowed halls of high school. They will— without exception— run into difficult situations, difficult people, and things which often don’t go their way.
In all of those scenarios, they are going to have to possess the skills and tools to deal with whatever life will throw at them. If we continue to coddle and protect our kids from disappointment, we are not doing them any favors.
As a parent, I know how hard it is to let your child work through difficult situations on their own because I’ve been through it more than once. Many times I have had to hold myself back from jumping in and saving the day.
However, now that they are adults I see the benefit they have gained from enduring some hardships and trials, and persevering through them.
They are confident in their abilities to face what’s in front of them, and they have learned valuable life skills that allow them to function within the society in which they live.
What it really comes down to is that high school sports offer our kids the opportunity to play the game they love for four years, and become better people in the process. What we as parents need to keep in mind is that there’s only going to be one “best” player and it may not be our child. However, our child probably has something to offer their team, and learning what our strengths are is invaluable as a tool in life.
In the long run, it really doesn’t matter if you were a star in high school.
What matters is what you gained from the time you played.