They say sports teach life lessons and things you’ll take with you forever. So when did kids stop having to earn a spot or work hard for something?
As the high school sports season come to an end, we look back and celebrate the champions and the schools that reached their end goal. We also should think about the kids on the end of the bench that never sniffed the playing surface.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for growing the game and allowing kids to pursue their passion, but at what point is being the 30th man on a high school baseball roster too much? If Michael Jordan was just handed a spot on his varsity basketball team, would he have gone on to be the greatest of all time?
Taking on too many kids promotes a laziness in sports that doesn’t bring out the best in kids. It is also showing kids that all you need to do is show up. While showing up is a crucial part of the process, another big part is preparedness.
Not everyone can just be handed a trophy because they tried. What is the point of playing the game and competing if there is not going to be a decisive winner?
For a kid that was cut from the seventh-grade baseball team, I know that fueled me to be greater and it carried me all the way through my playing days of college. Nothing is handed to anyone there, either.
So, when the kids in high school step out into the real world and look for jobs, they’ll think all they need to do is ask or say they want something, and they’ll receive it without putting in the necessary time and work? Makes sense.
There is not some big fix here. All we suggest: reasonable rosters, and providing kids motivation to earn the spot to then bring out the best in everyone. Having too many kids on rosters that don’t need it, like in basketball or baseball, just brings morale down when everyone has fake enthusiasm because they’re never seeing the field and manipulated into thinking they could.
Not only will it bring out the best in the team, but in other aspects of the child’s life in the distant future, too. The kids that don’t make it can pursue other interests that may be better suited for them, or they can hone their craft and come back stronger next year.
It starts in the younger ranks. Not everyone can have a trophy just because they were there, and because their parents paid for them to play. Play better, practice better, just be better, in general. If competing meant nothing, everyone would make the playoffs and scores wouldn’t be kept.
Yes, there can be leagues and games that are fun like that, but when we’re talking about school sports and representing a town, everyone deserves the best.
Now there are sports like football and track where you can get away with massive rosters, and absolutely need this depth. But baseball and basketball just look simply ridiculous when there are too many kids to cram into the dugout, let alone on the bench.
As we approach and prepare for next season, we’d like to see someone take a stand and start making kids earn it again. It’s a lesson that can only help them down the road. That is the Message. This is The Messenger.
