Rantings and Ravings

By Sun Advocate

It always amazes me that with everything that goes on in this world, the one area that seems to get the most attention is sports.
I know at the newspaper that it seems that we can get more calls about sports than about any article written about commission meetings or such. I write the sports so I get to hear about all the mistakes and omissions I make.
As a parent and proud grandparent, I like to see my child’s name in the paper. I was also involved in organized sports for as long as I can remember.
I love sports and am as competitive as can be. But I also realize that competitive sports really only benefit a small portion of our youth. For a healthy life style we need to foster a love of an active lifestyle. That includes physical, social and cultural activities.
Recreation is defined as a refreshment of one’s mind or body through activity that amuses or stimulates; in other words, play. Carbon Recreation should just be that, a community recreation resource. A few times a year, I am paid to help out with activities that Carbon Rec sponsors. I also volunteer for other activities they sponsor.
I do it because it is a joy to watch kids and adults discover a new skill and activity that they can enjoy. A sport learning program is also a part of the recreation package. It’s cool to see kids learn how to play just a bit better.
I just finished up helping with the K-1 Junior jazz program at my grand-daughters school. The kids did not play one game, but they had fun. Some of these kids will go on to excel in basketball, many will not.
As I covered the high school teams this season, I watched the struggles and the triumphs of the kids who participated. I interviewed several and many have no plans to play sports past graduation.
The rate of kids dreaming to make it big in sports was about the same on the winning teams as the ones who were suffering losing seasons. The reality is that there are only a few kids in any given community that want to succeed in their sport so bad that they will commit to the time and effort it takes to make it big.
Turning our recreation program into a sports developmental league is not the answer to having winning seasons in football at the high school level. The junior high teams seem to do alright, the high school, not so good. Good luck to the coach that figures out why.
It really comes down to priorities of our community. I vote to keep our programs promoting healthy life styles over sports development. I think our community is a much richer place for what it has.
I also hope all our sports teams see a successful season this year. It is so much easier to cover winning teams as a sports writer. It is also much more fun for the kids that are playing.