Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
I was asked a question the other day and I have to admit; it was a question I had never been asked before.
A nice, young dad of an athlete walked up to me, introduced himself and then said, “in your opinion, what’s the most important thing athletics can teach a young person?”
Frankly, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
After stumbling around for what felt like 5 minutes, but was probably only a few seconds, I responded by saying “there are a lot of reasons why sports are still important, but they all point back to one concept—"what you learn in sports you will use every day of your life.”
I’d like to use my time here his week to expand on that.
If you made up a flow chart and put “everything you learn in sports” in the box at the top, there would be two flowlines dropping down from it.
The first box below that would be labeled “perseverance”.
The second box would be titled “teamwork”.
In 2026, one of the things that is the hardest to ingrain in our young people is the concept of staying with something even when it’s difficult.
Being able to finish what you start was the norm in the generation that won World War II. Failure was not an option on Omaha Beach and in the Pacific Theater, and they stayed with the task of saving the world until it got done.
They will be the example of perseverance for as long as I live and breathe.
Unfortunately, even they can’t beat death, and that’s the enemy that is in the process of wiping out their ranks.
We have done a spectacular job of showing our young people how easy it is to quit.
We did that by quitting stuff ourselves.
We quit our jobs, we quit our relationships—we just quit. We give up way too easily and run toward what looks like a greener pasture, but it never is.
We never understand the problems that we have travel with us wherever we go. We can’t leave them, because they belong to us. They are ours!
As kids get older, they will find out that life gets more complicated, and therefore it gets harder.
There are more decisions to make. There are more people to consider when making our decisions. There are greater ramifications for the decisions we make and more pressure to make sure we get them right.
Think about a high school basketball team, for instance.
There are 12 members on the sectional roster at an Indiana high school. The most recent stats from the National Cancer Institute show that at least four of the members of that team will be diagnosed with cancer.
Now project that out to the next logical step. Assume with me that those 12 players get married. Of those 24 people, odds are that 10 of them will get cancer and one of their children or grandchildren will get it too.
What are they going to do then? Are they going to quit?
Perseverance that people develop from being an athlete growing up will get them through it.
It will help them with the 2am feedings and getting pulled into the boss’s office with the human resources director.
Teamwork is how that’s possible.
When we feel isolated, we don’t function the same as when we have someone alongside us. We draw energy from people we share life experiences with.
People who are similar to us in personality in many ways but different in others are complimentary. They don’t always see things the same way we do, but they understand how we see things and they try to help us see them from a different point of view than our own.
When our kids learn how to be a good teammate on sports teams when they are young, they see how much more fun sports (and eventually life) are when we don’t try to go it alone.
Again, that matters when they grow up and get serious in their relationships.
It will matter when they are part of a group effort at work.
It will matter when their neighbor needs a hand.
Even people who participate in “individual sports” like golf and tennis still have people on their teams that they can relate their experiences of that round or match to. That exchange of intel could make all the difference in the world next time out.
There are other things, other boxes, that flow down from those two. But in the biggest of pictures, it is perseverance and teamwork that connect them all.
So let me offer to you a concept that some of you will flat out reject on its face as “feel good” and not reality.
It’s this: Reaching the ultimate goal of “success” is truly only achieved by seeking to master these two character traits, and the benefits will satisfy more than any trophy, any award or any title.
