Opponents become Friends: The Beauty of Sport Relationships

As a lacrosse player I’ve always sought to play the game with sportsmanship and integrity. As a lacrosse coach I’ve always tried to emphasize sportsmanship and fair play with my players.

 One of the more inspiring examples of sportsmanship to which I’ve been a party was actually a series of events, specifically a series of dinners that brought strangers together.

Each year during spring break my high school lacrosse team would travel out of state for a few scrimmages before our season began back in Minnesota. I traveled to both Colorado and New York on these team trips. On each trip we would set up in a certain part of the state where we had arranged to play several local teams and would play nearly every day during our week-long stay.

In addition to the hard-fought scrimmages with each team, we would have a dinner for both teams provided by the parents or school of the local team. I was both humbled by the generosity, because it is no small task to prepare and serve dinner to 50-some tired, sweaty, hungry teenage boys.

In my experience, lacrosse has always had a stronger sense of community and fraternity than the other sports I played growing up, and that was borne out in the generosity of these lacrosse communities that hosted our team. It was also evidenced in how quickly we took to talking, joking and laughing with the team we had just battled on the field.

I remember at Yorktown high school in New York how at one of the long tables our two teams were indistinguishably intermingled and engaged in animate conversation, even though half an hour earlier two players from each team had exchanged some significant body checks.

I also remember playing nearby John Jay high school in a fog so thick I had no idea what was happening anytime our offense brought the ball past midfield and then learning the ins-and-outs of NYC from our opponents after the game.

From our time in Colorado, I remember eating with the Kent Denver team  when our coach, who is originally from Colorado, learning that a friend he met on a travelling team still lived in the same house and his son attended the school.

I could go on, but suffice it to say these meals were rewarding experiences and embodied a sportsmanship that ought to be at the heart of all athletics, especially at the youth and high school levels.

By: Christian Myers

Notre Dame Club Lacrosse Secretary
Social Foundations of Coaching Student, Education Schools and Society at Notre Dame