Six Points
I'e been holding this one in my back pocket for a while, and after watching football this weekend, I think it is time to pull it out. If you don't know the story of Ike Ditzenberger, you're about to get the Reader's Digest version. Ike has Downs syndrome, and he played football for Snohomish High School; determined to play at the college level. While on the JV team, the team practices a play for him, where they let him score a touchdown. During a game, the score was enough to where it wouldn't matter, the Snohomish coach asks the opponents if Ike could score, and they dig it, so Ike scores a touchdown. Ike was happy, the crowd loved it, and the whole deal got on local TV. After that, there was another "special" play where a student in a motorized wheelchair was brought onto the field, given the ball and off he rolls to the end zone, untouched.
The problem I have is that everyone was reacting as if this was some big deal, and not eleven people keeling over and letting a guy score, and no one was saying "wait a minute, that wasn't real. He didn't do anything to score."
There are two defining moments in my sporting life, and one really isn't a sport. First was junior high basketball. In three years, I came out with one point across all the games. I never had anyone say "aw, don't guard the little guy, let him score." I played the game as best I could and the outcome was real, if often lopsided. No amount of practice was going to get me closer to putting the ball in the hoop.
On the other hand, in eleventh grade, I was on our high school quiz bowl team. We only played a single meet all year, and I was on a motley team of all-city players. And the moderator asked stuff I knew, so I pounded the signalling bar and gave the right answer. She asked more stuff I knew, so I kept buzzing first and racking up points like I was storing them for winter. All of the reading and paying attention in school and yes, practice after school, fused together and I finally was able to be good at something outside of just school. It wasn't fixed, no one "let" me win, I won because I was better than the other people playing.
Ike's touchdown was a while ago, and my guess is that his parents kept the video. If Ike sees that again later on, he's going to see that the other players stopped chasing him, because it is that obvious. He'll see that and realize that the great moment that he had was bogus, as choreographed as a dance number on Broadway. I don't know if he'll realize that he didn't score on his own but had to have a huge amount of outside interference for it to happen.
If we're going to use youth sports as a means to teach kids to win and lose gracefully, and to try hard and that practicing makes you better, then I think we should cool it with the "special plays" that wouldn't come into being if the score was actually close, or the game not in the final seconds. Competing is fine, but winning and losing of your own accord is better.
The problem I have is that everyone was reacting as if this was some big deal, and not eleven people keeling over and letting a guy score, and no one was saying "wait a minute, that wasn't real. He didn't do anything to score."
There are two defining moments in my sporting life, and one really isn't a sport. First was junior high basketball. In three years, I came out with one point across all the games. I never had anyone say "aw, don't guard the little guy, let him score." I played the game as best I could and the outcome was real, if often lopsided. No amount of practice was going to get me closer to putting the ball in the hoop.
On the other hand, in eleventh grade, I was on our high school quiz bowl team. We only played a single meet all year, and I was on a motley team of all-city players. And the moderator asked stuff I knew, so I pounded the signalling bar and gave the right answer. She asked more stuff I knew, so I kept buzzing first and racking up points like I was storing them for winter. All of the reading and paying attention in school and yes, practice after school, fused together and I finally was able to be good at something outside of just school. It wasn't fixed, no one "let" me win, I won because I was better than the other people playing.
Ike's touchdown was a while ago, and my guess is that his parents kept the video. If Ike sees that again later on, he's going to see that the other players stopped chasing him, because it is that obvious. He'll see that and realize that the great moment that he had was bogus, as choreographed as a dance number on Broadway. I don't know if he'll realize that he didn't score on his own but had to have a huge amount of outside interference for it to happen.
If we're going to use youth sports as a means to teach kids to win and lose gracefully, and to try hard and that practicing makes you better, then I think we should cool it with the "special plays" that wouldn't come into being if the score was actually close, or the game not in the final seconds. Competing is fine, but winning and losing of your own accord is better.