Monday, February 08, 2016

Sportsmanship

The basketball game against McLean was tense with many lead changes, 3 points shots, questionable calls (on both teams) and coach technical foul (on them).  Unlike a number of teams in the league, the parents from both sides were very well behaved.  We and the McLean parents cheered heartily for our kids but did not go negative on the other team.  You could hear a pin drop in the gym when their coach got a technical. No one from our side cheered it and no one from their side screamed about the injustice. One of the refs was a little off yesterday and the McLean coach should have taken that into account before going off on a call, that in all likelihood was incorrect by the ref. Anyway, we were up by one point at that point, Scott hit one of the two free throws and then we got the ball back and Jonathan hit a three pointer.  A 4 point swing with a minute left in the game.  We ended up winning by 9.  

During all this hubbub, with the frenzy of the game on the line, one of the McLean players went hard at the hoop and for whatever reason lost the ball and went down hard behind the basket, hitting his head.  We recovered the loose ball and started down toward our basket as fast as possible, except Sam.   Now, in a close game, it would be preferable from a competitive standpoint that Sam head down to the basket as fast as possible and take advantage of a 5 on 4 situation but he was right their where the kid went down and stayed to offer a hand to him.  The kid was not thrilled at that point because he lost the ball and didn't score but accepted the help and ended up saying thanks anyway.  This happened right in front of the McLean parents bleachers and someone yelled at that point "great sportsmanship son" or something like that.  As the game came to a close the father of the son Sam helped up came on the court and shook Sam's hand and told him "he liked how he played".  It was a classy move in a league where the parents are often yelling at the opposing players or taunting them.  It was good to have a win and a classy crowd.  

Both boys are often the first kids to offer a hand when someone goes down on the floor.  Our team or the opponents.  Sometimes the opponents take the hand, other times they refuse it but Dylan and Sam are growing up to be good sports.  They want to win as much as the next guy but aren't willing to use their size and strength to bully or intimidate the other team too much.  They want to have fun out there and don't want to see anyone get hurt no matter what the score.  I was happy that they won another game last night but as I've thought about it today, I think I'm happier they gained the respect of the McLean parents more.  

1 comment:

Mom said...

Wow, am I proud of our boys.