I started writing for the Sun a month ago. Since then I’ve been very busy running around, talking to people, and attending sporting events. It’s crazy to think that I’ve only been here for a month, when it feels like so much longer.
I’ve met coaches, trainers, players, and parents, and they’ve all told me about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. During those talks, I’ve heard a common thread running through their stories: Sports help them.
Along with being a fledgling sports writer, I’m also a self-appointed, amateur philosopher. I wonder why sports help people. I started to think back on the stories I’ve covered so far.
Sports help people in many different ways. They give people a sense of identity. They teach young people about commitment and hard work, and teams make people feel like they’re part of a family.
I met a coach who’s been teaching tennis for more than three decades, and I saw the good memories she’s made crystallize into tears. I talked to young student athletes who’ve dedicated their lives to their sport and self-consciously downplay that fact like it’s no big deal. I sat in the bleachers and watched the parents feel a sense of pride when their child’s hard work paid off. And I listened to a martial arts trainer teach the importance of family to his students, a life lesson that helped him tackle his inner demons.
It’s been an eventful first month, and what I’ve learned is that people put their hearts into their sports, and if I watch closely enough I can see the threads that tie our culture together reflected in a game.
One of the threads reflected in sports is the importance of belonging. Everybody wants to belong, and sports teams give people a sense of identity.
That tennis teacher’s tears welled up partially due to a loss of her identity. For 30 years, she identified herself as a high school tennis coach, and some of her sadness came from knowing that she was closing that chapter of her life.
But she also shed tears of joy remembering all the students she had helped discover their own identities: students who had never played tennis before, who now feel like they’re part of the team. I talked to those students, and they said that being on a team has taught them commitment, which helps them realize their goals.
Goals are a big part of sports. There are literally goals on both ends of the playing field that each opposing team is trying to reach, but on a more meaningful level there are long-term goals. Within each team and individual player there are long-term goals like getting to the championship or getting to college. In order to reach those goals, the players must have commitment.
The student athletes I interviewed for Athlete of the Week all dream of going to college and see athletics as something that will assist them in getting there.
Getting to college requires work, like making varsity requires work. Work is the most important part, and when hard work is put into play, it shows commitment.
One student athlete I interviewed has already been guaranteed admission to a university as a result of his football playing ability. The college coaches can see that he is committed to something, and they want that kind of character on their team, as a part of their family.
Each team is a family. This is the most important theme that jumped out of each story. Just like a family, a team needs to work together.
The coaches are like the parents. The players are the siblings. There are older and younger siblings, captains and co-captions, leaders and followers. No one is more important than the other, and they all need each other. Like any member of a family, the player is on an individual journey as well as a group mission with his or her team.
The members of the water polo team that traveled together said they were like a family because they had spent so much time together in and out of the pool. The friendships they were making could last them the rest of his or her lives.
The role that teams play as families can also help people overcome more serious challenges; the importance of family helped the martial arts teacher I interviewed overcome his battle with post traumatic stress disorder.
He took that family value and built it into his academy so that he could help other veterans overcome their battles, and now his academy is growing because of it.
It’s amazing to see all of these life lessons reflected in sports. I think it’s great that sports are helping so many people.
I know sports help people because I’ve seen it in action. I see the themes of identity, commitment, and family running through these stories as well as in my own life. I’m taking these lessons about sports and applying them to myself and the non-athletic teams I’m a part of, like this newspaper, for instance. The things we learn in a month.
Contact Staff Writer Aaron Salazar at asalazar@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 2, 2014.