WILL

B.

Growing up playing sports, I always enjoyed competition. One thing that really bugs me is when I hear someone saying, “it doesn’t matter if you win or lose it’s how you play the game” or “it doesn’t matter if you win or lose as long as you have fun.”

How you play the game and having fun is important, but winning and losing is just as important as the previous two items. Losing teaches some important lessons like how to work hard to achieve a goal, humility, resilience, perseverance and many more important lessons.

Winning is a reward for all the hard work, time, effort, training and hours put into a sport or activity.

What gets my goat most about those negative sayings is, it is disrespectful to the athletes who put all their time in effort, on and off the field, training to be successful at the sport or activity and be a valuable member of the team. First-string and being able to play in a game and on a team is not guaranteed by just showing up; those spots are earned by players who put the work in and have rightfully earned a spot on a Varsity roster or to have play time in a game.

Most parents and students may not understand how lucky living in a small town and going to a small school is, because the lack of players for sports often is the only reason some student athletes make a team.

At large schools, it is common knowledge and practice that athletes must try out for a team. Even putting in time and work does not guarantee a spot on the team because the best players are chosen for the team, and the best players are usually the ones you see training outside of practice and outside of a sports season.

I understand not all will agree with my beliefs on this but if you ever played sports and had to play with teammates doing the bare minimum with an attitude of not caring if the team won or lost, you would understand the mentality of a winning athlete.

This is Will B saying, you can still have fun playing sports but where is the fun in losing?