I’m a long-time youth sports coach. Many of the kids I know are aging out of these programs. Some go out “on top,” but others have had a tough time. Almost all have had both experiences over the years. I recently posted this for those I’ve coached:
I hope you had fun along the way.
I hope you made some lifelong friends.
I hope you had at least one season, game or single play to remember.
I hope you know that not everyone is so lucky.
I hope you had at least one coach who recognized your effort, if not your ability.
But…
I also hope you had at least one coach or team that didn’t seem to appreciate you or your effort. I don’t say this to be cruel (and I hope I wasn’t that coach), but because if you did, you learned some important lessons – like, you can’t control someone else’s opinion, or sometimes it’s just not fair. Just like real life. We all experience difficult co-workers, bosses or relationships. That’s part of life. I hope any bad or disappointing experiences/teams/coaches helped you appreciate the good ones even more. That’s part of life, too.
Most of all, I hope you have learned that hard work will always make you a better player. Hard work never made anyone a worse player. Sometimes, the rewards of hard work come quickly, but mostly the rewards take years. Sometimes, you feel like you deserve better (and sometimes you’re right about that), but that doesn’t diminish that your hard work made YOU better. I hope you take these lessons with you into the world beyond sport.
Brian
What Kids Learn By Being on Sports Teams