Bring back the fun in sports
Igrew up in a very small community in the East Kootenays. There were no organized teams but we made our teams and played anyways. No arenas, no football stadiums, no soccer pitches, just the odd softball diamond. Somehow we made our own sports and had lots of fun even with minor games like Ante I Over.
The player calls out Annie-Annie Over and throws the ball over the building to the kids on the other side. If they catch the ball they can sneak around the building and throw the ball back or catch others and tag them. The players have to keep an eye open for them coming and beat them to the other side of the building. Fun. For adults, too!
When my family moved to Winfield, George Elliott was a brand new high school. Because the student population was quite small, you could play almost any sport.
Sure, we had referee disagreements but very little rough stuff. Cursing and swearing and you were gone. Smoking or drinking and you were off the team. Total respect for females was expected.
We dressed to impress, before games, with sports jackets, ties and slacks.
Today, it seems that even minor sports are motivated by the desire to win, at any cost, including very rough play. Players egos reign supreme with much much disrespect of females.
In hockey, most parents simply withdraw their children as soon as rough body checking begins. Soccer can also be a very mean and over dramatized sport. In football, if you don’t bulk up you do not have a chance.
Then there are the professional salaries that are totally out of proportion to time served playing. Some hockey goalies spend most of their time on the bench. Some baseball relievers pitch very little. Fun? Nope, just big bucks. But if in your wildest dreams you do make it to the big times you are a hero. Right? Not.
Most people only know a few players in any sport and are disgusted with overinflated salaries and player egos.
Not to mention the young men of the Canadian Junior hockey team who are accused of serious sexual allegations. Sure they deserve time to explain but the discouraging part is that Hockey Canada seems to have kept this hidden away for years.
Both camps need to understand full disclosure as players and accusers will need to be named. We can only assume that some are playing in the NHL, today, as accusations go back a long ways.
I attended a few hundred minor league hockey games over the years. I had three grandsons playing minor hockey.
But when you do not make the rep team or when very rough body checking is allowed, it seems that your career is over. Most young people just stop playing the rough sports.
Even the rep team players rarely make it to the big times and, when in their twenties, there is very little organized sport to participate in. The fun is gone except for maybe some university or farm teams.
Females in sports have complained for decades that they are under represented and very often given very little recognition, or that assault is not taken seriously. Hockey Canada must improve its reputation and will need to show fair investigations of the latest assault cases.
Players like Jake Virtanen may be found not guilty but there is a pervasive attitude in the young men of sports that anything goes towards females, nowadays. Not Fun.
Crap television movies and programs, and junk internet sites (read porno) are just too pervasive, today. They give young males attitudes that most females actually hate.
It is one thing to dress like you are a nice person but it takes a much bigger man to act like a nice person. Seek strong and decent relationships by acting decently.
All females are watching to see that there is a reasonable investigation and or legal process to deal with the alleged assaults. Even Prime Minister Trudeau is irritated at how long it has taken. And all are asking for change.We all should be. And bring back the fun to sports.