The Even Playing Field

On Monday our soccer teams lost big time to another local middle school team that had kids who had been playing together on year round recreation teams. We had a couple of boys who really took it personal and thought they were the ‘one and onlys’ on the team.


A good thing came out of this poor sportsmanship. The boys apologized at practice today and brought a committed attitude to the team.

Teamwork within our group had been a little lacking because this is the first year our school has had a soccer team. These young guys recommitted themselves in a positive way so much  as to say, “Don’t follow our example from during and after the last game.”

Practice went well as it could, but there was also a new spirit of comradery that wasn’t there in our first practices. The formation into a team was almost more important than the skills necessary to play and win.

C.S.Lewis writes in The Four Loves that Friendship is an often bypassed love that is one that brings about a furthering of self-knowledge. He states, “By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all [my] facets.”

The soccer field is very much like the dependency of different friends. The players must acknowledge and pass on their talent to those who are talented in different areas, all complementing each other for the winning goal. We don’t need the others, but things get pretty hard to impossible without that concept working as a dynamic force pushing us to be better in different ways.

The boys apology was sincere, but the teams rejoicing and accepting of their youthful folly was heartwarming also. Now if we could only get them to keep working together as a team and win some goals!

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2