The True "Value" in Sport

Often lost amidst the countless stories of dysfunctional attitudes, words, and actions in the athletic culture, is a very powerful reality - sports is often a place of joy and comfort to it's participants and spectators alike. We get caught up in the prurient stories of athletes committing criminal acts, or coaches showing incredibly poor judgment, or even fans showing ridiculous, if not obscene behaviors at sporting events all across the globe. We lose sight that sports can (and does) offer a vast array of qualities that serve to educate and affiliate people from all socio-economic backgrounds, race, gender, age, or skill levels.

Sports can offer hope to those struggling to move out of their current surroundings....

It can provide a diversion of joy from a life filled with pain and heartache....

It can provide "life skills" training that serve them well in every challenge that they confront....

It can offer us physical and intellectual growth that lasts a lifetime....

It can establish relationships that support us and nurture us all along our journey....

And it can teach us that even though there is strength of one, there is power in the team.

It is for these very reasons that we must continue to search for, and be diligent in finding the solutions in making athletics once again be a profound educational and socialization tool. I don't mean that sports is no longer upholding these responsibilities; but I am referring to the fact that the culture of sport has devolved into an environment where corruption, chaos, and confusion has seemingly taken center stage. For every great and epic personal or team accomplishment, we are overrun by stories of greed, vanity, ego-centrism, crime, and delusion. I'm sure I could easily advocate for the "good-old days" of athletic competition, but that would be short-sighted since all of the aforementioned dysfunctions were present back in the days of Abner Doubleday and James Naismith. Obviously, increased media exposure has expanded the lens of social scrutiny for athletes, coaches, and administrators alike - but I also believe that the sheer volume of ethical decay has increased many-fold as perspectives are lost amid the piles of cash and hero-worshiping of our athletes that is present at all levels of the athletic experience.

Even when you strip away the intellectual gravitas that we find ourselves drawn to as the targets for "the cure", sports and athletics can serve as both a "friend" and "form" in finding peace and a sense of family.

When I was a young boy, I was raised as essentially an only child (my sister and brother were 13 and 9 years older than me respectively). I became engrossed in all things sporting - whether it was playing or reading or watching. I was enchanted with baseball box scores; I reveled in football highlight reels; I fancied myself another Bobby Orr; and could stare down Jack Nicklaus over a 10-foot birdie putt. Sports became my constant companion as both an active participant or as observant spectator. I did more than just learn how to play the games; I learned how sports worked....how it moved. I learned to understand the specific cultures of each sport and how the athletes prepared and why the fans cheered. I learned the language of statistics and how they provided both depth of analysis, but also an incompleteness of the greater perspective. Walls festooned with posters of heroes and summer nights straining to hear a fuzzy, west coast radio station broadcasting my favorite team - that was the rhythm and substance of my life in my youth.

Many years have passed since those simpler times and the miles are showing in both my face and my psyche. In an adult life where athletics became a large part of my vocation, I came to see sports beyond the fantastical perspectives of glory and honor. Athletics has fallen victim to the many ills that riddle our society seemingly everywhere we turn. I came to realize that my idols have warts and Cinderella stories can most certainly strike midnight. I came to learn that many people used sports to their advantage - leaving a wake of abused and mistreated people along their way. I have seen good, common, decent people lose all sense of reality when measuring their child against the rest of their peers. I have seen administrators turn their back on what is right to choose a path that is easier and quieter.

I have seen the enemy and it is us.

And yet I have stayed, if for no other reason than I believe I can (still) somehow make a difference in the lives of others through the "gift" of sport.

And if I hadn't stayed, I would never have been gifted myself.....

Several years ago, my life was turned upside down through a series of personal losses. All the things I once held so dear no longer seemed to matter. I even walked away from my beloved calling of coaching hockey. I felt I could no longer commit my time and efforts into an endeavor that no longer could salvage my heart. After a year away from the game, I was contacted by a good friend of mine who had just been named head coach for a high school girl's hockey program. He was someone who I had both worked with, and who had worked for me at a couple of other stops along the winding path of one's coaching resume. I was hesitant at first - it was a long drive to the home rink, but more relevantly, I doubted whether I cared to invest time into a job that was far more headache-inducing than wealth-building. I was still grieving my losses and felt that I needed time to focus specifically on that process. In the end, my love of the game won out over the doubts, challenges, and possible pitfalls.

And it was the best decision I could have made.

Without my friend's support and caring, I would have been so far adrift in self-pity that I may never have found my way back.

Without attending to the relentless needs of the team, I would have lost myself in a world of personal despair.

Without the team, I would have forgotten how lifting others to achievement is the purest way to find personal grace.

And WITH that team, I found a sense of "family" that ultimately saved my life.

Today that same team has accomplished great things, and yet is still dogged with the typical challenges that come from working and pushing adolescents to find a Champion's Mindset. They equally drive me mad and make proud - such is the life of a high-school coach.

And in that relentless pursuit of excellence, I find a reason to grow....a reason to learn....a reason to live....

And a reason to smile.

Never forget that sports are not just a tool of our growth, but a comforting place of solace amid the maelstrom we call "life”.