Is it still worth teaching kids to pursue excellence for the sheer pleasure of maximally stretching themselves, finding new limits to their physical and mental possibilities? Should the “joy of the journey” even be considered? Where are the youth basketball coaches who will value development over dominating the 8-year-olds from the next neighborhood?
While these words and phrases used to mean something to coaches and players, they now sound like the lectures of a sport-hating Sunday school teacher. How did this happen? How did we allow the mass media to determine for us that nothing short of winning it all—every time, every year—will be acceptable? The answers--too much money involved, too much recruiting capital at stake, too much fan pressure--strike me as ridiculous.
Defining winning solely by championships makes demands on coaches, players, teams that squeeze out all other considerations. “Character” really doesn’t count. “Loyalty” the stuff of World War II vets. “Effort” the language of losers. “Disciplined preparation” affirmed in victory only. Because all that matters is the trophy, the parade, the post-game celebration. Appealing to anything else is a loser’s lament, and media mock those who attempt to find solace among the “ruins” of the season.
Ironically, even the “winner” only wins for a day or two; before the calendar week changes, media prophets already have next season planned out--why you won’t repeat, which of the victors will be out of the league. Win it again or last year doesn’t matter. It’s all become a bit draining.
I read an interview with Vinko Bogataj, the ski-jumper immortalized in his 1970 crash played weekly as the back-drop to Jim McKay’s “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” Wide World of Sports intro. In recounting his memorable day, one that included a monstrous 401-foot first jump before the third aborted jump for which he became known, Bogataj said, “The difference between victory and defeat can be very slight…all sportsman should know that.”
Indeed. But knowing it and submitting to its reality are two very different things, and as American sports continue drifting toward an insane infatuation with “victory”, we’ve no room left for the lessons of defeat. It seems we’re losing something more than games in the drift…