The opening speech of this video seriously hits home on so many levels for me... I get goosebumps every time I hear it. And the coach around the 7:28 mark brings me back.. yeah.. anyway..
Closing with the Bear is oh so fitting.
[youtube]AlXDo5WhQXI[/youtube]
"pack93z" wrote:
+1 for this.
This video illustrates how sports, if done right, can be so valuable to the young.
Unfortunately, it can too often be done wrong. Maybe its just me, but I have as many, or more, unpleasant memories about grade school and high school sports than I do pleasant ones. I was never much more than a benchwarmer and stand-on-sidelines-never-play backup, a junior-varsity level player. Sports only works its magic for a person if one actually shares in those moments. And there are too many "teams" where too many get to share too seldom.
Madden, Favre, the others talk in the video about hoping the kids enjoy the kids playing. But how many youth teams (I'm not talking about the varsity team so much here, but the teams below them) have too many kids that never really get to play much, even in practice.
I think that is why I so often find myself opposed to "organized sports" before high school. I grew up playing "the game of fall". In parks, in yards, in schoolyards after hours. With caps marking the sidelines and sweatshirts marking the end zone. Tackle football. Without pads. Without parents on the sideline. Without weight rooms. Without anything but each other and a ball and drawing plays in the dirt.
I admire coaches like those you see in Shawn's video immensely. As a teacher, I envy their abilities to inspire and cut to the heart of the matter and all the rest. But I hate bad coaching more than just about anything -- and to my mind, there are too many coaches who forget too often that the most important thing is that their players enjoy the game.
All of them. Not just the first string.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)