More Than Being a Good Loser

 

Just because I'm not a sports fan, doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the lessons sports teach, in particular the root of good game play — sportsmanship. Usually this means a team or individual not pitching a fit after losing, but seeing it as a lesson about things to improve for future play. People usually view those who blame outside factors or claim unfair gameplay as poor sports. 

A few weekends ago, I traveled an hour away to watch a teenage grandson Ian's soccer team play in an end of season tournament. Because of traffic, I arrived a little late, and the game had already started by the time I got parked. After getting comfortably seated, I paid attention to the game going on in the field in front of me. I know the basic rules of soccer, but there are a lot of nuances and strategy that I don't know. It didn't take more than a few minutes to realize that the team I came to watch was simply not doing well. They seemed to be more interested in passing the ball back-and-forth rather than moving it forward or going for goals. Occasionally, the other team would make a drive downfield and score.

Because I arrived late I was not sitting with other parents that were also there to watch Ian's team. With that, and the lack of scoreboards (because of the asinine theory that kids don't need to know how well anyone is doing) I did not know what the score was. Based on what I had witnessed, only the other team that scored so my assumption was our team was losing.  

As play continued in the second half, the boys seemed a little more energetic but still were not scoring. When the game was over. I walked to where the teams were having a final meeting with their coach, knowing that with this loss they were out of the tournament. As the team meeting broke up, I heard people telling the boys on the team what great sports they were and how it'd been a great season. I really expected them to be more upset, but you can still hold your head high after losing to a superior team.

When I finally got Ian away from the rest of the crowd, I asked him what the final score was, and he told me his team had won by a sizable margin. Then he explained, in the first 10 minutes of the game they scored over 15 points. At that point, they could've just ground the other team into the dirt, but rather than doing that, the team took it easy and simply defend the lead. So, when they had possession of the ball they would just pass it back-and-forth, giving you the team a chance to steal. They were slow to run downfield to give the other team a chance to make a goal here and there. Ultimately, they did all this to spare the other team's pride, since their victory was assured. In fact, because of the win, they were going to play the final tournament game in about two hours. I told him I'd hang around for that.

It was a different lesson than the one you normally hear about sportsmanship. This was about how to be a gracious winner and taking the victory without demolishing the other team just because you can. I was proud of him and his teammates. They let the other team leave with their heads held high because they had played their best, despite being significantly outmatched. It feels good when you can walk away with something like that.

The last game? The opposing team was equally skilled, which made the game exciting to watch. Both teams left it all on the field doing their best making goals when they could and trying to hold the other team's scores as low as possible. In the end, the team I was rooting for one that game too.

Note:  The pix are from a few years ago, not this tournament.

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