| No one enjoys winning more than I. I grew up being very competitive. I was a competitive swimmer for 10 years. I always tried to be the best in everything in school. I worked 30 years in UNI’s athletics department, never learning how to take a Panther loss with the attitude “it’s just a game”.
Competitive sports at any level truly is about winning, but it should also be about how you play the game. It’s all about effort, self-pride that you did your best, and just as important, it’s about sportsmanship.
Sportsmanship should be learned at the earliest age possible and reinforced as the athlete progresses through competitive levels. Sportsmanship pertains not only to the athlete, but to the coaches, parents and fans as well.
I recently read about a program in Andover, Mass. called “The Warrior Way”. A new program in the public schools sends high school athletes to elementary physical education classes to mentor fifth-graders and encourage sportsmanship. As we all know, upper-level athletes are huge role models for those younger.
Andover athletes talk about what it means to be a good teammate and have good sportsmanship. They talk about how you always should try your hardest all the time, no matter the endeavor, whether in the classroom, at music lessons or on the athletic field or court.
The 50 high-schoolers in the program were nominated by their coaches for not only their athletic abilities, but also for top academics and strength of character.
I would like to encourage all area high school and college administrators to adopt such a program locally. It will benefit not only the youngsters, but the student-athletes themselves. I believe in it so strongly that I would be more than happy to organize such an outreach. Give me a call or email me.
Below are five principals of sportsmanship provided by Character Counts!. Please post on all locker room bulletin boards.
The Five Principles of Winning Honorably
Sports best achieves its positive impact on participants and society when everyone plays to win. Winning is important, and trying to win is essential. But so too is how you win. Below are five principles that all sports programs should follow:
1. Winning is important, but honor is more important.
Quality sports programs should not trivialize or demonize the desire to win. It’s disrespectful to athletes and coaches to say, “It’s only a game.” The greatest value of sports is its ability to enhance the character and uplift the ethics of participants and spectators.
2. Ethics is essential to true winning.
The best strategy is not to de-emphasize winning but to more vigorously emphasize ethical standards and sportsmanship in the honorable pursuit of victory. That’s winning in its truest sense.
3. There’s no true victory without honor.
Cheating and bad sportsmanship rob victories of their value.
4. Ethics and sportsmanship are ground rules.
Sports programs must never be subordinated to the desire to win. It’s never proper to act unethically to succeed.
5. Benefits of sports come from the competition, not the outcome.
The vital lessons and great value of sports are learned from the honorable pursuit of victory, not from victories, titles, or win-loss records.
Reprinted from Character Counts!
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