Over the years I have enjoyed the gift of athletics in many different roles. As a young kid, I participated in youth sports like Little League and youth basketball and then grew up to play on the varsity football and basketball teams at Cook County High School. While my playing career was short-lived and fairly uneventful in college, I did learn a lot by playing a year of college football and baseball.
As I moved into coaching as an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota-Morris, I started to appreciate athletics more and more from the coaching perspective. That love of athletics has grown more and more each year with the wonderful opportunity to work with the many outstanding studentathletes in Cook County.
Now, my kids are participating in youth basketball, flag football, and youth tennis and play golf whenever they get the chance. I am now experiencing sports from a parent’s perspective.
Last but not least, I have always enjoyed sports in my role as a fan. I remember great memories like the Twins winning the World Series in 1987 and 1991. I remember the agony of defeat many times when the Vikings have come up short in the playoffs. I can still recall late night NCAA basketball tournament games where a buzzer-beater would awaken an entire room of fans.
I love athletics. Not because they are the most important thing in the world…they certainly are not. On my overall list of priorities, sports ranks under my faith, family, friends, education, etc. Sports are not my entire world, but nonetheless, they are important.
I love athletics because they help teach people of all ages two of the most crucial values that humans need to learn: accountability and self-discipline. These lessons are reinforced in athletics at the youth, high school, college, and adult levels.
Athletes of all ages learn accountability in their athletic experiences, especially when involved in team sports. When an athlete misses practice he or she doesn’t only miss out on selfimprovement, he or she misses out on helping the entire team improve. Even at the youngest of levels, it is nearly impossible to coach a player who is not present.
At the high school level, student-athletes learn right away that if they are going to miss practice, they are not going to play in the games. It is tough for a team to work toward a common goal when the team continually has players missing practice. When players are held accountable by their coaches, they are not being punished, they are being taught a valuable life lesson. The world does not revolve around each of us individually (as much as some would like to think). Rather, the world benefits when people work together.
Self-discipline is also a vital ingredient to a successful life. High school athletes have to be disciplined enough to balance their school work, train for their sport, oftentimes volunteer in the community, and then spend the time it takes to actually compete in their sport.
Many times I hear that certain athletes are not going to play a sport so they can “focus on their studies.” Statistics in study after study have all shown that students involved in athletics or other extra-curricular activities outscore their less-involved counterparts. This is usually because student-athletes have to be disciplined enough to balance their time effectively and efficiently.
Even as sports fans, we are seeing that accountability and self-discipline are essential to success in professional sports. Athletes such as Tiger Woods, Barry Bonds, etc. are now all being held accountable for not having self-discipline in certain aspects of their lives.
While some may put athletes on unnecessary pedestals and give them unreal expectations to live up to, I simply love athletics for the values they teach young people. I am excited to see my kids have the opportunity to learn those valuable life lessons as they progress in their athletic careers. They don’t need to be the star quarterback or the team captain. If athletics helps reinforce to my kids that they need to be accountable to others and live self-disciplined lives, that is all I could possibly ask for.
Mitch Dorr, a Cook County High School Class of 1993 graduate, is now a social studies teacher and coach at his former alma mater. Mitch coaches Vikings football and boys’ basketball. Coach Dorr’s comments do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the ISD 166 school board or administration.
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