the cost of winning

I am a fairly avid football fan. Especially if my students or brother are on the team I am watching. I am very competitive and I will think, if not call, cruel things to poor referees. I am from Texas, and not that it is an excuse, but I expect a fair game, a tough game, and a game where the people I care about win.

However, the past two weeks the school I teach at has played, and I have wondered the cost of the other team losing. It had rather shaken me to the core, as I look at the student's faces, see their tears as they get so close to the title and have it ripped away.

Last week the team we played lost by 8 points, and it wasn't that they were not talented, or big, or didn't have their heart in it. It simply came down to a couple plays that had they ended differently, we would have lost.

This week, we played a team that put their heart into it for the final title. It was them or us that would walk away with the championship, and their team played their heart out. The game ended tied, with an NCAA playoff. We set up and scored first, and made our kick. They set up, scored quickly and set for their kick. The person setting the ball fumbled and they missed their kick. They lost by one point, by one set of shaky hands, and I can only imagine the pressure on that one student for the failure.

The competitive side of me gave way to the compassionate side. I have no doubt that the championship title was not worth one student's misery as he realizes all blame would go to him for the loss. I have no doubt that the cost of a championship should not be measured by shaky hands. And yet, I also know the fact that one moment in that student's life may affect him adversely forever.

You see high school, in my mind, is meant for developing and growing. It is meant to teach good sportsmanship, to rejoice the winnings and come together at the losings, and appreciate the talent shared.

Somehow, I feel like it wasn't recognized that both these teams played well. I feel like the title went to the winner, but that we didn't really prove we were better. We just proved that one set of hands didn't have as much sweat. Somehow, the cost doesn't make the title worth it in my mind.

The cost of one student being held responsible for a small amount of sweat doesn't make it a good game.

I struggle with this. I really do. I see our boys walking around today happy about winning state, but all I can do is wonder the cost.