They really are all winners

At the end of a high school sports season like this one, it’s good to reflect on why running or playing with a ball matters.

It doesn’t, of course, but those sports can be the means to learning something profound and life-changing for young people, whether winning or losing.

It will never matter to almost every high school football player in another five to 20 years that they ever learned to play that game. Same for volleyball players, soccer players and players of just about every game we spend so much time pursuing or watching.

But what will matter very much is what they learned, in the process of playing, about looking deep inside, discovering a reserve of willpower, energy, resolve, determination, to do better than they thought they could at whatever their current task or goal is. It’s a skill that will serve them for a lifetime.

That’s a win for every young athlete, no matter how much or how little their efforts are recognized.

Scott Hunter

editor and publisher