Better Than You.

Life's lessons begin very young. As you know, I am a sports-lover and one of the reasons I love sports so much is I believe many of life's important lessons can be taught through both team and individual sports. Recently, a group of Little League players were robbed of one of those lessons.

A nine-year old Little League player in New Haven, Connecticut named Jericho Scott was banned from playing because he was too good of a pitcher. Scott never hit or injured anyone with his pitches, but opposing parents complained that he was just too good to face their children. When Scott and his coach refused to except the ban and he showed up on the mound, the opposing team's coach decided to forfeit the game. This bothers me immensely.

When I was about seven or eight years old, I had lost a race in swimming and was very upset. I was crying and my dad took me aside and explained something to me that I am extremely thankful for. This lesson my sound harsh, but it has always stuck with me and has extended into situations in the real world other than just sports. My dad said to me that day, "No matter how good you do, there will always be someone in the world who will be better than you." Now, some may say this is a very negative thing to tell a child of seven or eight years old. But it was not meant to be taken that way at all, and even at a young age, I understood what my dad went on to explain. He said (and I paraphrase since it was a couple decades ago), "You will win sometimes, maybe even a lot of the times. But there will be times, there will be races when you don't win. There will be people who are better than you at swimming or soccer or school. They may be better than you every once in a while or they may be better than you most of the time. That is Okay. You do not compete only to win. You try to win, but the most important thing is that you do YOUR best. You can use losing as a motivation but always keep in mind that no matter how hard you work, you may still finish second, or third, or maybe even last some of the time."

Again, there are those who might think this is harsh. But you know what? It's reality. And I think it's the kind of reality we all need to experience. In the case of New Haven's Little League game, when the opposing coach forfeited the game because another player was too good, what did that teach those kids? That if you lose, or if you don't get your way you should quit.

Now, in Scott's case, I think there are alternatives such as giving him the option to compete in a higher age-group or for a more advance league if there is one available. But in the end, he is nine years old. If he wants to compete with peers of his own age and he is not endangering them, then that is his choice and it should be allowed.

It seems that people are often so worried about hurting a child's feelings that they shut them off from crucial lessons about life. Sure, it would be wonderful if our children were the very best athletes, scholars, musicians, etc. But we all know that NO ONE can possibly be the best at everything, and most people will never be the very best at anything. It's so important to teach our children to work hard just for the sake of working hard. For SELF-FULFILLMENT. Not for trophies, awards, first-place ribbons. Those things are wonderful, but if they are the only thing a child works for there will be a rough road ahead when the accolades run out.