Last week several people wrote us about a story. Here’s one of the emails:
I recommend you look at the piece on CBS Sunday Morning from this past Sunday about a young high school wrestler. His opponent was seriously injured in the closing moments of his match. He chose to remain motionless on the mat when the match was restarted-his opponent could not use one of his arms-all the young man had to do was stand up and he would have won the match…instead he stayed flat on the mat allowing his injured opponent to win. When it became apparent what was happening the crowd began to applaud-then they stood and applauded-even the referee began to applaud.
After the match the loser (who really won in everyone’s minds) said “It just wouldn’t have been fair to take advantage of his injury-it wasn’t his fault). That is the true definition of sportsmanship and adherence to “The Code”.
The only reason we compete is to try with all of our effort to win. However, we like to remind our players that we “win” by
- getting to play on a team
- working hard and seeing improvement
- making the team better by our efforts in practice
- getting to be a part of a team and learning to work together
- being a support in many ways to our teammates
- competing in a way that brings respect and honor to our team
Winning is always the goal in any competition, but regardless of the score we can always win more than the game.
