Loss of High School Sports. Now What?

Being an ex-teacher I wanted to let people know about the sanctions which were announced today by the Saskatchewan Teacher Federation.  The Saskatchewan teachers announce sanctions, withdrawing voluntary and extracurricular services. Until these sanctioned are removed it is my understanding that all sports in the school will be removed.  It is our hope at the Academy that the Government and the Teacher Federation quickly resolve this to allow the athletes the opportunity to resume their current sports seasons and allow for future seasons. The academy was concerned about its ability to rent the school's gym to continue to offer the skill development and was told that it was not a concern and the sports skills training will continue. 

The first response of the athletes who only see the loss of a season is anger and the desire to just quit and think it is a waste of time to continue to train with no foreseeable possibility of putting the skills to use in a game situation. The benefits that I got from playing Volleyball, Soccer and the other sports in my life have been health, self-confidence self-esteem and the ability to manage my anxiety and emotions.  It has taught me the value of teamwork, leadership, social skills and discipline which I have been able to successfully apply to many other aspects of my life.  The training allowed me to fight stress to improve my ability to think clearly and memory.  It was a career path that I followed as a physical education teacher, a coach and has allowed me to build the academy.  The greatest memory in sports for me was not an individual game or season but a time where I trained as hard an I could and made the sport the number one priority in my life and was able to see just how good I could become at something if I applied myself and earned the skills.  A memory which I have applied to many other aspects of my life because it is my firm belief that anything of value has to be earned not given and the harder it is to achieve the more valuable it becomes.  And last but not least sports allowed me to meet my wife and have given me a way to relate, interact and build a relationship with my son.

In fewer words, the benefits of sports go way beyond the immediate games which have now been removed from many high school sports athletes.  The challenge of training to make yourself better is never a waste of energy as I can now see with my hindsight of the years of training in which I grew as an athlete, a coach, and a person.  The loss of the ability to apply your skills as an athlete in the formal game situation due to the sanctions will be a greater issue if you allow this setback to impact more than just a few games.  Age has removed my ability to apply my sports skills at the level that I once could but I still benefit greatly from the years I dedicated to training and trying to make myself better.

Not to make light of the loss of the games or the games themselves but the value of sport is in the training for the games.  Making oneself better is an individual activity that has not been removed by the sanctions.  Train and train hard and when the games return you will be better equipped than you are now for sports and life.