Anybody who knows me knows I love sports. Whether I’m watching, playing, discussing, or writing about sports, you can tell where my passion lies. You can bet that if you decide to become a sports employer, you will hear the phrase “I have a deep passion for sports” almost daily. Why do I love sports so much? Is it the unpredictability of each competition? Is it the joy I get from a pick-up game on a Saturday afternoon? Is it the need to belong to a fan base and take part in the rich traditions of gameday? Absolutely! All of those things play an integral part in my enjoyment of sports. However, that’s not the main reason why sports play an integral part in my life. Along with my enjoyment of football back in my middle and high school days, I learned several valuable lessons that have shaped me into the man I am today. We can learn many things just from watching sports, but our true potential is awakened when we step onto the field or court. In all honesty, every child should play a sport as they grow up. Besides the fundamentals of the sport, athletes learn 5 valuable aspects of life every practice, game, and team meeting.

1. Teamwork

This one’s obvious. Only a handful of sports do not require more than 1 person to play, but that also goes for the business world. Very few businesses can run with only one person at the helm (honestly, I don’t think ANY business can have only one person run it). You need a team to accomplish what you want both in a sporting competition and in life. In football, we had to work as a unit with each player responsible for a certain gap, block, or assignment. If even one player missed their assignment, the play would falter. In life, we specialize at a certain jobs and then work together with other people to create something bigger. The majority of my coursework in college involved group assignments where we had to divvy out tasks to everyone based off of their strengths. If one person failed to do their task, then the project would be incomplete. Sure, one person could carry the team, but is that very efficient? No, it’s not. Odds are your child will be working in teams in school, the workplace, and for various functions. A good lesson in teamwork will help them better understand task efficiency and goal setting.

2. Discipline

It seems like discipline and abuse get misconstrued, especially in today’s culture. However, try to imagine life if you or anybody else lacked discipline. What did football teach me about discipline? First, it taught me to learn from my mistakes, big and small. We all screw up in some way throughout our life and then we suffer the consequences of our lack of discipline. This can be missing a block and having a fumble returned for a touchdown, or getting frustrated at someone and sending a hurtful message that could end a friendship or start a fight you may not win. Second, it taught me to respect authority or risk paying the consequences. Finally, football created situations where you HAD to be disciplined enough to carry out a play or assignment. From practice, you knew what would happen if you messed up your assignment, and you did everything to prevent that. Even as an adult I still make mistakes, but the discipline I learned during my football days has helped me think more rationally and consider the consequences of my actions.

3. Awareness

Every athlete needs to be aware of their surroundings and their situation. It doesn’t matter what sport you are playing, a heightened sense of awareness always comes in handy. It could be knowing where the linebackers are coming from, knowing if the runner on first will steal, or knowing how to read a green for the birdie putt. You can also recognize a player’s next move simply by watching their body language. This awareness can translate into the real world. Communication involves body language, and the ability to recognize body language can help anybody understand a situation and act on it.

4. Trust

Trust can be hard to establish among teammates, but it is pivotal to the survival of the team. It begins by establishing group goals and working towards those goals. Each teammate performs a certain function while the others do a different task. Even though we try, we simply can’t do everything. Same goes for a football player: if he didn’t have the 10 other teammates helping him out, they may not be successful in what they do. In volleyball, the libero leads the defense while the setter leads the offense. If a child can learn to build trust in his/her teammates, then they can learn to build trust with their co-workers down the road. Practice makes perfect.

5. Perseverance

Whether you’re trying to make a 4^th quarter comeback or rally the team in a blowout, perseverance is key to any sport. We always found ourselves in some type of rough situation, and we had to maintain our composure and work to get out of the jam. The will to go on even when all seems lost doesn’t just translate to athletics, it translates to life. There will be days when we feel like the world is crumbling beneath our feet, but we CANNOT give up because the situation is not in our control. We have to persevere and keep fighting. Football put me in those situations where we had to keep fighting. In the 4^th quarter, we found ourselves down 36-17, but guess what? We came back to lead 37-36. Sadly, we gave up the lead and ended up losing 44-37, but even in defeat we never quit. That’s the theme of sports: never quit. Football taught me that, and I am thankful to have acquired a stronger inclination to persevere even in tough times.

There are several other ways to explain how athletics strengthens these 5 qualities, however, I know football the best and decided to take that approach. Football trained me to bolster the above qualities, and I don’t think I would’ve been able to learn them had I not participated in some type of sport. This is why I argue for kids to play sports because they can learn a lot about themselves and work with others to grow their trust, awareness, and teamwork while learning to persevere and be disciplined. Some will learn quicker than others, but over time, you will start to see results. In short, keep athletics as an integral part of your child’s life because they will help them succeed and grow into more mature and prepared individuals.