Why We Are Honoring an ‘Athlete of the Month’

This week, on page 20, The Courier begins an Athlete of the Month feature, in conjunction with Clancy Moving Systems, Inc., of Patterson, as a way to honor our hometown athletes. Athletic competition is one of the surest ways to develop character in young people. When we praise someone for fairness and magnanimity in any part of life, we say, “he’s a good sport.” When successful people in business or political life describe their good fortunes, they constantly use sports metaphors. Why? Because sports, as much as academics, teach us about rewards that come with exertion, and the thrill of accomplishment. Young athletes learn not only to master their bodies, but their passions. Sports train young people not only to score goals, but how to set and achieve them in life, fairly and within the lines.

Some pro-athletes take our admiration and the rewards of their skill as a license to act outrageously. Their shame is their own, not that of sports. Most of our athletes will never go on to be the big-money, big-mouthed millionaires we see on television. Instead they will likely go to college, enter a trade, or start a business. Most will raise families of their own. Sports teach young men and women to recognize when to give way to a teammate and when to take the lead—and how to take the direction of a coach. Sports can teach harder lessons as well; That the race is not always to the swift, but time and chance happen to us all. Each of us will run into disappointments and reversals. Athletic competition can teach young people how to accept these humbly, and to greet victory with grace.