Sportsmanship is, happily, alive and well in Ledyard

Ledyard N othing else in sports brings out all the dime store philosophers more than a discussion on what contributes to good sportsmanship. No matter where you are — bleachers, gin mills or living rooms — every Tom, Dick and Harriet has written the manual on the principles of sportsmanship. Just ask them.

Even governing bodies have joined the fray, much like here in Connecticut, where the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference hatched a toothless “Class Act Schools” initiative, featuring players using the public address system before games to read pre-written clichés to members of the crowd, who then continue to bark, snarl and snivel at whomever they choose.

One day, they'll all realize that acts of sportsmanship aren't legislated, but rather spontaneous and sincere. You know them when you see them.

Perhaps they can start teaching the class for that at Ledyard High.

Because what a bunch of Ledyard kids did last week at two different sporting venues should have the rest of us taking notes.

Scene I: Soccer game at Bacon Academy. Ledyard needed a win to share a division championship within the Eastern Connecticut Conference. And so in the middle of the game, closely contested throughout, Ledyard freshman Daimon Pollard happened upon a most unusual request.

“During a goal kick,” Pollard said Tuesday, “a kid on the Bacon team asked me to tie his shoe.”

The player in question had a broken wrist and was unable to do so himself.

“I had the same thing once,” Pollard said. “I know how painful it is to tie your shoes. They teach us at Ledyard to be kind to people here no matter the circumstances.”

Still, you kind of want to pause and weep tears of joy, given the number of Keyboard Warriors in today's morass

who would label Pollard as either soft for acquiescing in the middle of a game or as lacking the ingenuity to untie the other kid's shoe while he was down there.

Scene II: Earlier this season, Wheeler was playing a volleyball match at Ledyard.

“I have a friend on the Wheeler team, Sarah Spracklin, who said to me that Wheeler wasn't going to have a Senior Night this year because they don't have a home gym to use (it's under repair),” Ledyard senior Morgan Riewerts said. “I was joking around with her and said, ‘we're going to do a surprise Senior Night for you.' Totally joking around.”

And then Riewerts had a most joyful epiphany.

“I started thinking, well, what if we actually gave them a Senior Night next time they come to Ledyard?” Riewerts said.

“Next time” was last week. And so the Wheeler players entered Standish Gym to posters, balloons, roses and all the other bells and whistles for Senior Night. Some of the Wheeler kids cried.

Ledyard's Lexy Hanes called someone she knew to get the list of Wheeler seniors and uniform numbers. There was a group chat to finalize other details.

“Everything had meaning,” Hanes said. “Yellow roses for friendship and red roses for the love of our sport.”

Ledyard's Maylyn Haydash: “It made the game more enjoyable, too. We were playing against each other, but having a good time. A fun game overall.”

A game the Wheeler kids will remember forever.

And this — yes, this — is the essence of sportsmanship. Not some perfunctory postgame handshake line that has all the sincerity of a car salesman. Or some hollow, pregame blather the kids are forced to read, while the adults check their phones. This was sportsmanship at its apex. Utter humanity. A bunch of kids who chose to do the right thing, even when nobody else was looking.

Clearly, they're looking now. Before Tuesday's volleyball practice, Ledyard assistant principal/athletic director Jim Buonocore read a letter to the team written by Don MacKenzie, owner of Boats Inc. in Niantic and the public address announcer at Ledyard football games.

The man his friends call Donny Ballgame was so impressed with the volleyball team's sportsmanship that he sent a nice note and a $500 check for the team to use at its discretion. If you do good, good comes back to you, as noted in Galatians 6:9: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

The kids will use some of the money for pizza at their own Senior Night on Wednesday.

Not a minute later, assistant coach (and art teacher) Marin Marciano reminded her players that they would be sending Mr. MacKenzie a thank you note, saying, “It's the right thing to do.” Indeed. Mad props and bon mots to Buonocore, principal Amanda Fagan, Marciano, the volleyball kids, Daimon Pollard, soccer coach Bill Glenney and anyone else unintentionally omitted for giving us a glimmer of hope today. Sportsmanship may get body-slammed from the top rope now and then. But it ain't dead yet. This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro