This is the first of a two part series, the other entry will deal with why I love sports. But first, a little disclaimer about me and my biases...I enjoy playing any sport, and watching pretty much any sport. My dad is a big sports guy, so I've grown up watching and participating, and it's one way that we really bond. I played soccer and basketball in high school, and while I don't play for Huntington, I usually play basketball a couple days a week, and play in all of the intramural seasons. I'd consider myself to be a fairly avid sports fan, and rather knowledgeable.
Like most people in Indiana, I'm a die-hard Colts fan. And they lost last night in the first round of the play-offs. It was a heart-breaking loss. Pretty much ruined my weekend. I went home mainly so I could watch the game with my dad, only to have them lose. One game easily ruin my day, or even weekend if it's bad enough. This can make me rude and hard to be around, and most people have no idea why. Being a Colt's fan means that I loathe the Patriots (and I'm an even bigger University of Illinois fan, so I hate IU), and if I find out that someone likes one of the teams on my 'black' list of teams, I immediately judge that person and think less of them. Even if they're the nicest person in the world, I'll think less of them because they like the Hoosiers. A down-side or organized athletics is the sheer time that it requires. And a lot of this time is at inopportune times (for example my freshman year of hs we had to have basketball practice at 630 in the morning every day). This can take away from other activities-such as sleeping or schoolwork, or even growing friendships or making new friends. I'd spend several hours a day in practices and games, but even when I wasn't physically doing something with my team, I may have still been thinking about it or talking about things that we could do better, so the time is even greater. I don't have any personal experience with this, but I'm sure that there have been numerous families that have been ruined because one spouse wasn't willing to sacrifice for his/her family. Whether that's drinking after a tough loss, or just constantly being gone with the team, it's hard. College teams are looking harder and harder for the next great player, and that means scouting thousands of high school kids. Several years ago colleges would just look at seniors, and wouldn't pay much attention to anyone else. It's gotten to the point that a few college's have offered 8th graders full-ride scholarships to play at their schools. While that's not the norm, it has become quite normal for high school freshman to have offers from the top basketball programs in the nation. This adds tremendous pressure for these kids. I know that when I was a freshman college was the farthest thing from my mind. But these kids are forced to adjust to being a national name, while adjusting to high school and all of those changes. They're under constant scrutiny, and every mistake they make is instantly a major deal. No fourteen or fifteen year old should be forced to deal with this scrutiny. Most adults couldn't handle it well, let alone high schoolers. And I'm not even going to go into some of the extra 'incentives' that colleges give to high school athletes, but that's another major problem with sports.
There are a lot of problems with sports, things that impact almost everyone negatively in some way or another. With all of the bad things that athletics bring to the world, it's a wonder why it's so popular. In my next post I'll try to explain why it is so popular.
It's a harsh trust, isn't it? I struggle with judging people who like different teams or different bands as myself as well. It's a scary thought really, what damage I may have caused from those thoughts.
ReplyDeleteAs far as recruitment goes, I fully agree. Let the kids have a high school experience. They will have to grow up and be adults eventually anyway. Let them be kids for the short time they can