Sportsmanship in Life

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Mar 6, 2005

Having finished a round of negotiations with our hockey association and other activities, I am reminded how important it is to instill a sense of sportsmanship in your kids--good sportsmanship.

Without going into lots of detail, our boys' hockey coach was in jeopardy of being suspended for pulling the team off the ice during a dangerous game. The other team had gotten out of hand and was being egged on by their coach to continue with their dirty game playing. After our smallest player was checked from behind and hit to the ground, our coach did the responsible thing and pulled the boys off the ice. Because of little known rule, he was then facing a suspension of up to a year. The parents then signed a petition requesting that the coach not be suspended and that if he was, we would pull our boys out of the State championship game. As it turned out, our coach was in the right and because of another rule that was not followed--he was not suspended.

As we sat through the disciplinary hearing and listened to the coach and the boys give testimony, I was amazed by the sportsmanship that was being displayed on all parts. The coach never raised his voice; he presented his facts in a calm manner. The boys spoke about playing the game of hockey, having fun, working on their skills. Never once did they speak of the other team and bad mouth those boys. The only mention of the other team was by our coach who said, "I am sitting here being accused of doing the right thing and the other coach is getting off with nothing."

As my boys grow and go on with their lives, I hope that they will always remember that good sportsmanship will get them far in life. If they can learn to "play the game" and not worry about winning all the time, they will become productive citizens. We have been lucky so far in that all the coaches the boys have had--in all their sports--have always pushed sportsmanship. Win or lose--to be able to be a good sport about it, is the most important thing.

Last night, our boys competed in a math competition. With over forty schools in attendance, they competed against 400 other sixth graders. Both boys talked about winning a trophy and about how great that would be. I talked about how just entering the competition and participating was a great thing. When it came down to handing out trophies, neither one of our boys won anything--but we watched with great pride as they cheered and hollered and clapped for one boy from their school as he won 2nd place. Then as the school won 5th place overall, we watched again with great pride as they smiled and cheered for themselves. Later that night, Logan said that he was very happy they placed.

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