This is what it is all about…

When we attended Oldest Mini Team BRAZO’s swim meet the other night, we noticed something that just made you sit, watch, and say – that is what it is all about.

The swim meet was Conference Relay’s, which means that they just swim relays during the meet. Each team probably had around 15 to 20 members on each team and each relay would have between 4 and 8 team members swim depending on the relay.

Well, during one of the relays I noticed that a kid on the starting block getting prepared to swim once his teammate finished his 100 yard swim. I noticed that he was much smaller in stature than the other kids at the swim meet. Watching this kid, I could tell that he was very excited and kept on getting into his position to start his leg of the relay. His teammates were all around him pumping him up for probably his first competitive swim.

Once his teammate touched the wall, into the lane he jumped. I had noticed during the meet that a few of the swimmers didn’t really have much of a stroke and were either a bit slow or they were just chopping in the water. Well, this kid because of his small stature was going very slow but steady in the water. His left arm did not complete the full stroke, but his right arm did get him to move.

During his swim all of his teammates were lining the side of the lane yelling and screaming him encouragement, even though they knew that his swimming would certainly cost them the race – they just didn’t care. When he finished his 100 yards, you could just see the ultimate joy on his face with all his teammates congratulating him on his swim. I had tears in my eyes just watching.

Now, that is what sport is all about. Not those FREAKING loser 4th grade football coaches that don’t play the kids that may be a bit slow, not those FREAKING loser parents that yell at the coach for playing the slow kids, not those FREAKING schools that play favorites to the top athletes in the school, and not those FREAKING loser 3rd grade little league coaches that hold “drafts” to fill in THEIR teams for the upcoming little league season.

But instead it is about PARTICIPATION of ALL kids, teaching the kids that it is about having FUN not winning, teaching the kids that it is about TEAM support, and teaching the kids that TRYING is the only important part.

On this Thanksgiving weekend I give THANKS that we still have some good sports that the kids can participate in – if we only had football, basketball, and baseball – we would be in a world of hurt (have you seen the news lately??)….