Saturday morning, October 5th, 2019, I scrolled upon an article that struck my attention about a local high school football game that transpired the night before. The game surrounded the heart-rending story of Rancho Mirage junior linebacker, Israel “Izzy” Ramirez, who suffered a brain aneurysm and was hospitalized on September 27th, 2019. The Rattlers wore wrist bands transcribed, “30 Strong” and played that night for him; winning their first ever league game in the school’s history. The opposing teams crowd all wore maroon in support of Izzy. Upon reading this story, I couldn’t help but think about the word “sportsmanship”.
Cambridge English Dictionary defines sportsmanship as, “the quality of showing fairness, respect, and generosity toward the opposing team or player and for the sport itself when competing”.
In my opinion, sportsmanship is about more than simply playing fair; It’s about respecting the game and playing for more than just yourself. Sportsmanship is about identifying your why.
Besides winning, why are you playing this sport? What motivates you to keep trying? Is it your family? Is it your teammates? Is it your community? Winning is fun, but winning isn’t everything. Sports aren’t always about winning or losing, they are about building character, having integrity, and showing sportsmanship. I always try to tell my athletes to put things in perspective when they fail (strike out or make an error in my case). I tell them that life will go on and that the game is bigger than themselves.
At the end of your sports career, whether that be high school, college, or professional, you won’t remember the errors you made or the games you’ve won; you will remember the relationships you’ve made, the life lessons you’ve learned, and the community you’ve built.
All over the valley I’ve been seeing high school sports being used as platforms to spread awareness for a cause. Many high school teams around the Coachella Valley went ‘gold’ during the month of October to help spread childhood cancer awareness. These teams and individuals have begun developing their why—now it’s time you start developing yours!
