Sportsmanship and the economic crisis...

I just read an article about 1 school beating another 100-0 in girls' basketball.
School attempts to forfeit 100-0 win
My comments at that article

The comments lead me to ponder what good sportsmanship really is.

My kids' school- granted, it was for the 1st or 2nd grade- gave "good sports" awards to every student in the class. This is the type of society we have become. Sportsmanship is not taught- and not even expected. A kid who bullies and trash-talks and demands his own selfish behavior gets rewarded for being a good sport. The bar is not set high in our society - if there is even a bar at all anymore.

The point of this all rambling is that the way you play is as important as winning and losing. For pro sports, maybe not as much so, but it is still there. For most of us, 99% of us, winning is not everything, but winning well is. Play, but play the game the right way. Winning is not the same as winning at all costs.

I love competing, and I hate losing. I think the sting of losing is important in building character and also an important part of having the drive to improve. The ability to win well is also important. Teaching these traits to our kids- and to ourselves- makes all of our life better. It teaches us the skills to compete at the workplace without looking to win by causing others to lose. It teaches us how to disagree in our family without leaving broken relationships in our wake. Sportsmanship teaches us to be our best, and to excel, but to do so in a way that respects, and even lifts up, our opponent.

I also spoke last Sunday at my church about how as Christians we are to have Healthy Conversations- and subtitled it "How to disagree without being disagreeable". As I look back on that message through the lenses of the question of sportsmanship, maybe we need to ask not just WWJD, but WWWJP- What Way Would Jesus Play? Because how we play- in the arena of Life- is as important as what we accomplish. Maybe our problems in society right now come down to bad sportsmanship in life's biggest arenas. We want it all, regardless of the cost, no matter who is beaten down, and in the end all of us suffer the loss of something even more important.

That isn't to say that we do not stand on principle, or that everything is debatable. Not at all. Jesus died for us all, and there is no other way to God than through him. That is undeniable, and our Hope is that all would come to Christ and that none would perish. What this does say is that the way we express truth, and the way we stand for what is right, and even the way we debate and the way we argue, must all be done in Love- Love for God, and with God's Love for others. We can win in life without needing everyone else to lose. There are win-wins we can find.

I also just read an article on the passing of Hall of Fame Coach Kay Yow.
http://www.newsobserver.com/1005/story/1380259.html
I'll close with some lines from this article. They speak for themselves...

"For all her personal accomplishments, Yow considered her greatest achievement to be how she touched the lives of her players and expanded the horizons for all girls interested in sports.

“I need to make a difference in the lives of other people,” she said in 2002 when she was named The News & Observer’s Tar Heel of The Year. “If I’m not doing that, I’ve missed the whole point of my gift of life.”

From childhood until her final days, Yow engaged in the game she loved, but eventually she transcended it. In a hotly competitive sport, her gentle manner taught mutual respect. And in recent years, her energy drained and her features drawn by cancer, her presence courtside reminded all in the arena that no matter how urgent the contest, it was only a game. What mattered most, Yow said, was winning in life."


A shorter version of this is also blogged at http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/kingface