A Massachusetts hockey dad was ejected from a girls high school hockey game for shining a laser in the eyes of the opposing goalie (for details check out: http://abcnews.go.com/US/massachusetts-dad-accused-aimed-laser-pointer-high-school/story?id=15868651).
Our society has come very far. We have landed on the moon. Multiple times. We drove around on the moon. We even brought some of the moon back. And that was 30 years before anyone owned an iPod. Yet some elements of our society are still so primitive in nature, and last week's incident in the Bay State was just the latest in a stream of toxic youth sports news that illustrates how far we still have to go.
As a society, we pursue sports as a good. We marvel at athletes' ability to demonstrate physical prowess in a fun environment. A teacher of mine once said he always reads the front page of the sports page before the front page of the newspaper because the former is typically celebrating the achievements of humanity rather than the latter highlighting our shortcomings. We also appreciate the physical health benefits gained from increased activity on personal and societal levels. We also value how sports can be the vehicle for the values of inclusion, friendship, fun, and determination to enter into our lives.
Furthermore, as parents, we seek sports to be an avenue on which we can show our children virtues that we know are important for raising good people: honor, justice, fortitude, courage, prudence, and temperance. From experience, we know that sports can be an excellent "classroom" for the lessons that are vital to children's development as quality members of society.
And as administrators, we are stewards of the purity and goodness in the world of sports. Recently having returned from Uganda, I recall an African Proverb that is translated "We did not inherit this world from our ancestors. We are borrowing it from our grandchildren." It is our duty as stewards of this world, knowing how much good can be gained from youth sports, to create an environment that is above all safe for our children to pursue the values and virtues of sport. Not only should there be mechanisms in place to punish perpetrators of these pure arenas of sport, but there is a growing need in our country for a means of preventing them from perpetrating in the first place.
We must pursue fun, achievement, and safety with equal measure. And to achieve that we need to educate administrators, parents, coaches, athletes, and even officials of why it is we, as a society, choose that sport is something that is worthwhile in the holistic development of our youth. As sad, pathetic, and reprehensible as an event like this is, it is preventable. Play Like a Champion workshops seek to educate all parties in why youth and high school sports are so important to our future. Too often, incidents like this hockey game create an environment where our failures as a society are highlighted, but Play Like a Champion seeks to demonstrate that sports was and STILL IS a means of showcasing the flourishing of humanity!
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