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Congratulations, Lookout and family, for being such great sports parents and teaching good sportsmanship.
My kids are big sports participants too -- son plays baseball and wrestles, daughter does all-star cheer, basketball sidelines cheer and spent 3 years in competitive gymnastics. So I've seen the good, bad, and ugly, boy have I.
We've been so lucky to get involved with organizations and coaches that teach good sportsmanship and are more concerned with the kids' emotional health than with winning. That's not to say they don't push the kids to do their best and enjoy winning! It's a difficult balance.
Last summer my son's baseball team (minors - 9 year old boys) against a team whose parents were horribly obnoxious. They had spent WAY too much time making up signs and all kinds of "spirit" doodads (I've seen less at pro games), and the whole game they made noise to distract our players and called them foul names.
Our coach called a huddle for all of us and said "We can't stop them from doing this, but we can show them how a real team behaves." He urged us not to rise to their bait and do what they were doing in retaliation. We didn't.
Our team lost (came in 3rd, in the league) but we still felt like winners.
At Sunday's cheer competition, my daughter's team got 3rd place again. (um...out of 3) She tells me that, anticipating not coming in first, she urged her teammates to cheer for the winning team anyway. Some of them did, and she tells me they were the only people who did so. In the YMCA gymnastics league, that is what they were expected to do, and it's also what she was taught by last year's school team (though it's easier when you're always getting 1st place!) She approached one of them on the way out of the arena - I was with her - and said "Good job, you guys were really awesome today!" The girl looked at her like she had two heads, but then out popped a big grin and she said "thanks."
I know this sound sappy, but we're teaching our kids more than how to compete - we're giving them big hearts, too.
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