Winning is Everything?

Fellow parents, caretakers, coaches, and kids, we took participation trophies too far. Who in the IKEA even has the shelf space for all those soccer trophies? I knew participation trophies had gone off the ledge when my son came home proudly after a swim meet and shouted, “Mom! I got my first non-participation trophy!”When my son tried out for the basketball team, we veered out of the soccer, and baseball world of participation trophies into the arena of endless far-away tournaments. Now, my son plays non-stop basketball tournaments every weekend. Two games on Saturday. Two games on Sunday. They don’t get trophies anymore. They get medals, but they have to win them. No more “thanks for coming, kid.” Grab your prize on the way out. This basketball stuff isn’t Chuckie Cheese.Each day the teams play, they get an opportunity to medal — but they need to win both games on the same day to get their prize. That seemed like an improvement to “Here’s a medal. Thanks for showing up. Who was your team again?” This past weekend, on Saturday, my son's team won the first game, and it seemed likely they’d win the second. The second team they were playing had tiny athletes — a few under five feet tall. Their imminent win seemed like a given.I have a lot to learn about sports, but I learned this lesson right away. Don’t underestimate tiny basketball teams. They have other skills. Endless layups, sneaky passing, speed. The tiny team quickly got way ahead because of their superpower of being underestimated. Even the ref said to my son’s team before the game, “Those guys are tiny, I expect you guys will beat them by 20.” Ever heard of David and Goliath? The tiny team murdered my son’s team, dead. Left them dribble-less on the court. Knocked their buckets right out of their nets. I don’t think those are real expressions, but you get the idea. When I initially saw the game headed in that downward plummet, I felt moderately devastated.

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