I find it interesting that the world we live in is naturally competitive, yet more and more adults want to reward young people for just participating. Whatever happened to rewarding children and young adults for hard work and doing a job well? Our society’s youth are slowing falling victim to the material success of the generations that preceded them. All we seem to want for our kids now is seeing them “have fun” or that they enjoy an “experience.”
Not me; I want more for my kids than “fun.” I want my kids to learn about being their best. In a healthy way I want them to have work for it. My kids don’t need participation medals to help their selfesteem. Their self-esteem will come from the love of their parents and from finding out about themselves through the process of “being their best.” Along the way they may not get or earn everything they want in life. Theywill have to learn those lessons along the way; lessons that I find essential to the growth of any young person.
In the real world, if you do well in school, you tend to get into a good college. If a student does really well in college, people want to hire him or her when they graduate. If you provide a really great service or product as a business person, people want to continue to buy your product or service. When we receive poor service and poor quality as consumers, we tend to stay away from those products or businesses. It is a competitive world.
High school athletics are a great avenue to teach our young athletes about the values of competition, hard work, and teamwork. At the elementary and junior high levels, coaches try their best to play all their players. Sometimes, even at the younger levels, that is a difficult task because some players have yet to learn their plays or their assignments within the team concept.
By the time student-athletes reach the varsity level, players know that playing time is largely determined by talent, work ethic, and his or her dedication to practice and teammates. While quality coaches teach their athletes lessons that go far beyond winning and losing, fielding a competitive team is the driving force of competitive athletics.
Some people believe that high school athletics should be based on participation and having fun. I could not disagree more vehemently. For those who argue that case, I ask, “Have you ever been a part of a team that has been completely blown out?” Just last week, our girls’ basketball team took a 62-2 lead over the Silver Bay Mariners at halftime!
Coach T.J. Super did everything he could to have his team not score.
Do you think the girls on the Silver Bay squad were having fun? I don’t either.
If a young man wants to play basketball just for fun, he can get a ball and go shoot hoops in the back yard or at the school during lunch. If a young woman would like to ski just for fun, she can get her skis and either hit the beautiful trails around Cook County or take to the slopes in Lutsen. However, if a young person wants to be on a high school team that represents his or her school and community, they have to be prepared to compete. High school athletics are competitive in nature. If you don’t believe that, you need to get outside of Cook County and witness what everyone else in the country is doing.
Our student-athletes in Cook County are blessed to live here. We are small enough so that the above average, average, and even below average athlete has the opportunity to play in two or three sports. Parents in Cook County love the fact that their kids can be multi-sport athletes where in other areas of the state they may, if they are lucky, only get to compete in one sport.
While many other values like sportsmanship, cooperation, positive communication, and accountability are taught to the athletes involved in high school athletics, the value of competing has to be taught as well. If as coaches, we allow student-athletes to just “have fun,” we are doing them a disservice. Young adults can play video games for fun, but if we want our children to truly succeed in life, they will have to learn how to compete.
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.
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