On getting up...

Via SB Nation

In the grand scheme of the championship, that one point didn't mean anything. But really it meant everything.

We're often quick to dismiss sport in schools.

For the media driven madness hooplah surrounding it.
For the skewing of values.
For the jock culture.
For the over-importance heaped upon it in relation to arts.
For only focusing on winning.

And all of those concerns are valid at times.

But often sport is core to who children are - it defines and binds them - regardless of the success they as an individual may experience.

I still recall the sports teams that I played on during high school, with clarity and honesty. I remember the pain of loss and the shared exultation of winning. Of celebration and commiseration.

Coach St. Clair sitting next to me outside the admin block after a particularly tough loss, seeing me abject, and taking time out of his busy day to have a few words, finishing by quietly saying saying "It's about balance Tim".

Four simple words in themselves.

That helped a 17 year old me get up and keep going.

Life is indeed about balance, but in giving ourselves whole-heartedly to something beyond ourselves, such as a sporting commitment, we'll often find more of ourselves.

Thanks Coach.