SUNSETS AND SPORTSMANSHIP
February 2002

As I sat at the MHSAA Girls Basketball Semifinals and Finals, I was struggling for an answer as to why most students usually behave so well and some adults too often behave so poorly at athletic events.

I think I've got it, or at least part of it.

You see, I can't stand being indoors on a beautiful day. I don't want to waste it.

I arrange my evening meals at the cottage around summer sunsets. I don't want to miss God's evening handiwork. Like I've never seen it before and won't ever see a sunset again.

Not a day goes by – however difficult it has been – that I don't count at least a few blessings and tell my wife I love her.

Meanwhile, I watch my sons, nephews and other young people carry on with far less attention to these precious moments and the people in them.

And this may explain the difference in how young people and adults watch and react at high school athletic events.

For students, it's a momentary thing. There will be many more such moments. It's no big deal.

For adults, it's a moment we think will rarely and maybe never be repeated. It's almost life and death.

If a bad call goes against our sons or daughters, they move on, while we wonder how it will harm them forever, how it will mar their stats or scar their psyche.
We worry about how it will affect media coverage, the scrapbook, the yearbook, the college scholarship opportunity.

It's not just a moment for us; it's a memory. It's not just passing, but permanent. We transform it from an opportunity to an entitlement, from a privilege to a property right.

We adults are prudent to savor life's blessings, but we would do well to model students when it comes to reacting to the ups and downs of high school games.

The games are not life and death. So let's stop acting like they are.

--MHSAA Executive Director Jack Roberts