Sean Rooney, editor
403.528.5688
[email protected]
Friday, September 13, 2013 — THE MEDICINE HAT NEWS
Give your child a choice to play sports
Jim
Loughlin
I attempt to take a positive position and provide strategies to make sport a better place. The articles I
write are supposed to be for the participants, not me. I’m not sure that I can say the same for this article,
or maybe I should call it a rant?
Deep down, I’d say I’m an optimist, perhaps a na•ve one, but an optimist all the same. I believe sport can
Training Matters
and should have a massive impact in the lives of those that participate in it.
Sport can provide an avenue for physical health, friendships, character development and sheer
enjoyment. It can be an escape, if only for a couple hours, from the challenges life brings our way. Sport
can teach discipline, determination and life skills. Sport is for all – children and adults.
Unfortunately and all too often, the impact sport has on the lives of participants is far too negative.
Physical health is sacrificed through sucking it up, playing through the pain and enabling acute injuries to
become chronic.
Friendships are damaged when one child has more success than another and peer or parental jealousy
creeps in. Character development is thrown to the side in a culture that says its only cheating if you get
caught.
Adults intent on getting their way ignore the sheer enjoyment of their child as they attempt to “send a
message to a volunteer” or “set a coach straight.”
The net result children, coaches and volunteers drop out. I have to admit I just don’t get it.
Feeling depressed yet? I hope not too depressed. Here’s where my naivety comes in. I genuinely believe
that things can be different. How you might ask? Why not give sport back to those participating in it?
I’ll share a brief example to illustrate my point. My mom and dad were foster parents. Growing up in
Jim Loughlin is the head
Calgary, we had anywhere from two-to-three foster children in our home at any given time.
coach of the MHC Rattlers These foster children had labels like troubled teens to severely disabled. At times, our household was
extremely exciting and at other times quite scary. Each year, our parents would sit us all down and ask
Soccer teams and is the
one basic question “Do you want us to continue being foster parents?”
Medicine Hat Soccer
The question seemed pretty simple and from my perspective I liked having a say. I truly believed that if
Association’s district
we didn’t want foster brothers (we never had foster sisters) that my parents would have stepped away. I’m
head coach. He can be
glad this never happened as who I am today is a direct result of these childhood experiences.
So in a nutshell, here is my solution include the participants in the decision making process. At the end of
reach by email at
[email protected] each season, have a discussion with your child about the sport(s) they participate in. Ask them if THEY
want to continue with their sport of choice, discuss the pros and/or cons of their decision and then help
them live with THEIR choice.
If your child wants to stop playing at a club, rep or all-star level let them. If they want to take the risk and
try out for club, rep or the all-star level let them give it a go and support them along the way. Regardless
of their answer, guide them in the direction that they’d like to take.
Does this seem overly simplistic? Perhaps. I did mention that I was a na•ve optimist. In actuality, I think
the recommendation couldn’t be more difficult and even complicated not for the child, but for the
parent(s).
Asking the question might mean that a parent needs to set aside friendships developed over extensive
hours on the sidelines, in the stands, on bottle drives or long road trips to allow their child to play
recreationally or even quit the sport.
It may mean setting aside adult issues of not liking a particular coach or group of parents to allow your
child to continue to play with their friends. It could also mean having to swallow your pride, admit that
money is tight and access avenues such as KidSport or Canadian Tire Jumpstart in order to find sufficient
money to cover registration fees.
Easy for me to say – I’m not a parent. I’ve never had to deal with the emotions of raising a child and all of
the associated struggles.
That being said, as a coach and sport volunteer, I do understand what its like to swallow my pride and set
aside adult issues for the betterment of the participants.
If sport is to have the positive impact that I believe we’d all like it to have, we need to set aside our
personal differences, pride or both to let the participants have it back.