The State of Sports

The state of sports has been overrun lately with negative and disheartening stories. No reason to go over those stories – not what this post is about.

What I want to share is a few stories that I have encountered in sports – youth sports - over the last week that seem to be in direct contrast to what is portrayed in the media. My point is reference is mostly high school and college soccer – youth sports where young people play for the love of the game, the thrill of competition and the feel of belonging to a team.

• Two young ladies (both of whom are “stars” for their respective teams) jumped in the air for a 50/50 ball and hit heads – HARD! One young lady was helped off the field and did not return to the game. Later that night, long after the game had ended, the young lady who remained in the game called her competitor to make sure she was OK.

• A local college player who has been a long time starter for his team was unable to play in an important game last week – the second to last game of the season. There were two players who were reserves who played behind him – a senior and a sophomore. The coach went to the sophomore and told him he needed to be ready to play because it would either be him or the senior who played. The sophomore told the coach to let the senior play as this would be the last time he would be able to play on this team and his family would come from out of town to attend the game. The coach agreed!

• Two young men were racing after a ball at midfield and collided. One young man went down holding his knee – the other jumped up quickly unaffected by the collision. The boy who was unaffected quickly grabbed one of his teammates and helped the young man who hurt his knee – his competitor - off the field. The boy who was hurt re-entered the game within a short period of time and the first thing he did was go over and fist pump his competitor.

• Two high school girl’s teams played 80 minutes in regulation and two 15 minute overtimes that ended in a 1-1 tie. They went to a penalty kick shootout where one team ended up winning 4-2. After the exhausted girls shook hands with each other, the coaches and the officials, we saw the captains of both teams talking in the middle of the field. After a couple minutes of talk, they went back to their respective teammates and brought them all back to the middle of the field. There – both teams grabbed hands and prayed together!

Please know that youth athletics and youth sports – in its purest form – is alive and well! These four incidents happened in the last week – not over an entire season. Have Faith in sports and athletics and – for Heaven’s Sake – have Faith in our young athletes and our young people!