Sports carry life lessons for youth

Sports and life carry many assumptions. 

I saw and heard many in my 18 years as a sports reporter. One of the

commonly heard assumptions was, “sports keep kids out of trouble.” As a

father of three (ranging from ages 11-13), I find myself preaching that message

along with, “you learn lessons in sports that carry into life.”

I preach these messages because I believe them. I played sports as a kid, not very

well but that’s another discussion. My kids are way better athletes than I dreamed

of being but I don’t say that to be self-deprecating. The lessons I learned playing

are ones I apply to my everyday life whether it’s personal or profession. You
have bad days at work and at home. Those days are the sports equivalent of
dealing with a loss on the field. The question is, how do you rebound from that
defeat? Conversely, you will have good, even great, days at work and home.
Those days are the sports parallel to winning. The question becomes, how do
you balance celebrating that success with staying humble, knowing that
sustained success comes with no guarantees? 

In my 18 years in my former career of covering high school athletics, I’ve seen

youngsters come from many different backgrounds.

There’s the traditional family where a kid has a mother and father, some a little

more happily together than others. There are kids that have parents of different

races. There are kids who come with emotional strife of dealing with their

parents being divorced. Of course, there are also kids coming from every socio-

economic background as well.

Through it all, sports are like a sanctuary for some, and keep many out of
trouble. That line of thinking is not to suggest that youngsters will not run afoul
with their parents, school authorities or even the law but sports gives them an
element of structure that they may lack in other phases of their life. 

The cynics would suggest that sports do not keep kids out of trouble nor do
they cause trouble. However, I would argue that ugly incidents are far and away
the exception, not the rule.

Playing sports or participating on a sports team can help kids stay out of trouble.

It’s a way to keep a person busy, which avoids boredom. It is also healthy. While

athletics are not for everyone, they keep kids out of trouble by teaching them

discipline and life skills that they will need as an adult such as leadership and trust

abilities. Those skills, in turn, help them interact with people and teach discipline

by having them pass their classes and stay out of trouble. Through tough love it

teaches discipline as well if you do what you are asked academically.

Sports are important for growth and development. They help young people

learn teamwork, discipline, self-control, and teach them how to interact with
others. They involve exercise, thinking, planning, and strategizing. All of
these are important. Sports are not the most important thing in the world, and
some people take them far too seriously, but they are beneficial, especially to
young athletes.

Sports are good for teenagers because they provide them with exercise and
take up a lot of their free time. The teenage years are the time when a child
develops into either a productive or unproductive citizen of society.

The more unsupervised free time a teenager has, the more likely they are to be

a degenerate.

Practice time is for coaches, game time is for players

In my years as a sports journalist, I have also seen many different coaching

approaches. I’ve seen the fire and brimstone Jon Gruden approach and I have

seen the sideline stoic manikin look of Tom Landry.

It seems like whenever I see a coaching change the successor is the opposite in

personality that the one that has been replaced. I’ve seen both approaches be

successful, so no one will ever convince me that one is better than the other.

Whatever approach a coach uses, he or she has to be true to himself or herself.

The common denominator, however, regardless of personality is that the best

ones realize that “practice time is for coaches, game time is for players.”

The bottom line is, there is very little a coach can do on game day to get a

player to perform better. If they’re not ready by game time, chances are, they’re

not ready. That idea is no different that if a kid is cramming for a test five

minutes before the teacher walks in the door.