LETTERS: VALUE OF SPORTS IS BEING MISPLACED

To the editor:

In the beginning, there was organized sports with noble goals of cooperation, sportsmanship, leadership development and character building. Each of these aspects are very useful as we play the game of life. I am all for being the best that you can be. But what happened?

Today, some professional athletes are overpaid, arrogant individuals with aggressive behaviors that destroy the conceptual ideals of sportsmanship. These persons have destroyed the game. Some coaches, athletes and fans put on a three-ring circus act of obnoxiousness. Their bahaviors are upheld and mimicked by the younger generation.

We find at some universities rules being broken. Recruiting is more like buying a player for his or her talent. The academic budget pales in comparison to the athletic expenditures. Millions of dollars are poured into a program that may never produce a single professional. If the whole person is to be educated, a balance needs to be reached. Athletics vs. academics isn't a game where there is a winner.

On the high school level, communities, administrations and school boards recruit too. They give incentives and job opportunities to parents willing to relocate in the area so an athletically gifted person can play for their school. Win at all costs. At the cost of losing a sense of reality, not to mention honesty and respect, well-meaning persons are doing what is best for the image of the local district.

This is even trickling down to the elementary child and his or her parents. Little League games can turn into battlegrounds of verbal abuse. Coaches are yelling at kids. Parents are yelling at kids, coaches and referees. Referees are yelling at parents. Kids are yelling at kids. All this noise sometimes passes the verbal realm and gets physical. What does this prove? Surely there are other avenues to vent our frustrations.

Let's put athletics in its proper place. It is a part of life, not life itself. It's a community service to put a two-or-more-page spread in the paper about local sports events free of charge, but local churches have to pay in some publications to be recognized in the community. Instead of practicing or participating in a sporting event on the Sabbath, we would be better off practicing and participating in our spiritual pursuits. I think we are worshipping the wrong god.

In closing, I would like to say that I played all sorts of sports when I was in school. I was even on a great volleyball team in junior and senior high school and participated in intramural activities in college. Since then, I have sponsored cheerleaders and continue to support my nephews' athletic endeavors. What kind of example are we setting when it is a win-at-all-costs philosophy? It is not possible to win all the time. If we are to build character in today's youth and educate the leaders of tomorrow, maybe it would be best to show more cooperation and less aggression and selfishness.

ELIZABETH MARIE PETTY

Greenville