Quote:I see nothing wrong with participation trophies.  People take youth league sports way too seriously sometimes.  It's not about winning, it's about having fun.  At least that's always how I've seen it.  Winning or losing doesn't matter.  What matters is that you tried your best, and that you showed up.  


Shouldn't kids learn it's okay to lose?  To not feel bad about themselves for failing when they tried?  The feel you get when you win is a bigger reward than any trophy. Nobody is going to win every game.  It doesn't matter how good you are.

 

My girls played softball last spring.  And I remember a parent giving the coach a hard time about their daughter not getting more playing time because she was better than everyone else.  The attitude had obviously rubbed off on his daughter.  She ended up making the rest of the team feel bad because she and her father cared about 'winning'.  I felt so bad for the coach, who tried explaining that he wanted to give everyone some playing time.  

 

Winning isn't everything.  You aren't going to be good at everything in life.  But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try.  If you give up before you ever get started, you might not find that you have talent where you do.  

 

You and I should coach together. Hey, there are going to be plenty of opportunities for a player to get cut, demoted, humiliated, and lots of other things as they go through life. Why not let them have a little fun and go out there and play the game? I promise you, no one is going to turn into a psychopath just because they got an eight inch high piece of plastic for trying to play a game.

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