Life Lessons Learned on “Playing Fields of Eton”

My former pastor once asked us how we could teach values to teenage students in an era of rampant individualism. Several members of the group were surprised, almost shocked, when I suggested high school sports. We live near a major university. The group’s attitude towards big time sports is epitomized by the remark that “When they get to the bottom of Watergate, they will find a college basketball coach”. I visited our local sports complex and found that college football players use wood paneled lockers. After all, what high school prospect would consider a college that only had plain metal lockers? Given this level of cynicism, the group wanted to de-emphasize sports, not to use them as a vehicle for teaching values.

Even so, there are opportunities to teach real values on the playing fields. These are exemplified in WaPo writer Tom Boswell’s exceleent column about a young quarterback who lost a critical game by throwing the ball the wrong way. What followed is an example of how sports can transcend even Wellington’s remark that the "The Battle
of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton".

Boswell writes about how Good Counsel assistant coach Kirk Davis moved immediately to give counsel to quarterback Reggie Gooch. Fans began sending emails and letters assuring the team that “something good will come of this.”

On reading the story, I wanted to remind the team of Romans 8:28 ”… in all things God works for the good of those who love him…”. I also wanted to urge the team to reflect on the complete Serenity Prayer .

Give Boswell a read. In Saturday’s column he saw deeply into the values of sports.

Comments

[Yoni Cohen]

Hey-

Came across your blog today. Great stuff. Appreciated the article about the QB who threw the ball the wrong way.

Noticed you were a basketball fan. Hoping you could add a blogroll link to my College Basketball Blog, http://collegeball.blogspot.com. I'd very much appreciate a link on your site.

And would gladly return the favor, adding a link from my site to yours.

Thanks!

Yoni Cohen, http://collegeball.blogspot.com
College Basketball Blog