Faith in the youth - Sportsmanship is alive!

Faith in the youth - Sportsmanship is alive!

I am very strong supporter of having our youth in sports demonstrate good sportsmanship.    I have been a youth coach for the last six years and activity involved with several youth organizations through out the bay area.

In the past I have been pretty much on the borderline of being a bit preachy about how children learn from the adults around them.  Which by the way I still think is true but my view has change a bit after a futsal match a couple weeks ago.

My son was asked to guest play on a futsal team that was going to be short players a couple weeks back.    The team he was playing on had four players and a younger brother who was six year old.    The match was for U9’s, meaning the kids on the team had to be less than nine years old.  The match would be versus a U10 team.  Garratt would make the sixth player; my son is eight years old.  In futsal you play with one goalie and four field players. 

The U10 team consisted of players from my son’s former soccer club.  Many of the players my son had not seen since his departure.    I really had no idea what to expect.   I thought it could go either way on how my son would be treated.   The players on this U10 team all seemed to be very happy to see my son.   There was exchange of high fives, handshakes and hugs!  

The math began and as expected it was pretty lopsided.  The U10 team was dominating the game with great passing and finishing (scoring).  Many of the boys on this team have been playing with each other for over five years.    At one point in the match one of the kids on the U9 team was either hurt or tired so the coach took him out and put his six-year-old son.     I could see lot of the same traits as my son had at this age… He did not decimate against size or age of his opponents.   I was bit worried that the U10 boys might hurt this little guy.  

The opposite was true.   The U10 boys played against him with care.  They never just let him dribble by without some type of challenge but not at full speed.   At one point I could hear the U10 boys speaking to each other in Spanish.   The best translation,  “Guys we need to make sure this little guy scores, we all use to be him when we started.”    The six old did finally manage to score with an assist from my son!    The crowd went wild!   Kids from both teams circle the six year old and started to sing “OLE OLE OLE OLE, OLEEEE, OLEEEE”!

I thought to myself this is amazing that the kid’s really knew what the right thing to do was in this game.  It was not about winning, or letting the six year old make an easy goal, but to make him feel conformable and support the fact he was out there playing.    No coach told them to do this!  They did it on their own!  I understand and believe that a foundation must be built… but times like these it reminds me of how most kids are good natured and want to do the right thing!