More than just games, sports can be seen as powerful tools that can change our society as a whole. They can bring people together, create lifelong bonds, and teach important morals and values. Sports not only encourage physical activity among the youth, but also provide a fun and engaging way to promote a healthy lifestyle through positive entertainment. Beyond youth involvement, major sports organizations have the power to spread powerful messages and can open many new jobs and career pathways.
High school sports are a great way to build relationships with people. Whether a senior helps freshmen with advice or makes an impact on the community. Will Brooks, Woodland Football Alum, reflects on his past as a player. Brooks appreciates the new relationships he’s made over the course of his four years.
“Playing sports allowed me to create awesome friendships. I created friendships with people who are older and younger than me. I’m very fortunate to say I’ll be in contact with some of those people for the rest of my life,” said Brooks.
Beyond the new relationships, Brooks values his time here and all the new lessons he learned.
“Football taught me a lot. It allowed me to create goals for myself. Along with that comes self discipline. To achieve the goals I set, I needed to put in the work behind closed doors. If I never played sports I wouldn’t have this kind of self discipline,” says Brooks.
Steve Bainer, head baseball coach and a teacher at Woodland, is a big advocate for young athletes and the creation of relationships and the life lessons that are learned from sports. Bainer believes that the lessons learned through the game can drastically impact a young athlete’s life.
“Student-athletes learn lessons outside of the classroom, things like being a good teammate, being resilient, and being able to accept growth through failure,” said Bainer.
Bainer is a believer in the growth mindset. He talks about how it’s the ability to grow and change for overall success. He refers to Shohei Ohtani, a two-way player for the Dodgers and one of the highest-paid athletes in the world, and says he didn’t just wake up one day and become the player he is today.
“He had to work for his goals. I’m sure he didn’t have success every single day and every single time. He had to work through adversity and grow to become the player he is,” said Bainer.
For Bainer, being able to reinforce the ideas and to spread messages was a big reason why he became a coach. He wants to be in a position where he can spread the ideas he learned to the younger generation. Bainer takes some inspiration from his coaches from Holy Cross during his tenure as an athlete there.
“My high school coach reinforced the importance of being a good teammate. Understanding your role, position, and how you can help the team should always be first,” said Bainer.
Bainer’s key to helping others is to create relationships with the players. He says having a good relationship with an athlete can make a difficult conversation about their role and impact for the team can go a lot easier and with better understanding.
“You’re not always going to get good news, and sometimes those relationships matter; players need to know you’re going to be honest with them.”
Working towards a goal is an important step as a team for success. But achieving the goal you want may never happen. According to Bainer, the process is the most crucial piece. The process includes working hard every day, whether it’s on the field, in the classroom, or in the weight room. Being able to reflect on your day and knowing you gave everything is something every athlete should want to reflect on.
As Bainer was saying before, taking away life lessons is the bigger picture. One of his goals as a coach is for players to take away lessons to help them improve as a person. His biggest lesson is to leave the program better than the way you found out.
“When you come here, you should always be trying to make an impact on the program as a player. As a teammate, you should strive to put the program in a better position from a cultural standpoint, and along with that, comes success,” said Bainer.
In the grand scheme of things, creating memories and something to reflect on is also important. Bainer pushes the message of how you will be remembered as a teammate.
“How you’re remembered as a teammate goes far beyond how well you hit, how hard you throw, or your stats that year. You should really focus on protecting and taking care of your reputation as a teammate.”
On the bigger stage, major organizations like the NFL, NBA, and MLB know they obtain a large amount of viewership. For them, they use that to their advantage and help spread awareness to different causes. The NFL has different promotions like “Crucial Catch” to raise awareness for all different kinds of cancers. Then, they also have “My Cause My Cleats,” in which players will customize their own cleats to support a cause of their choice. These are just two of the many different promotions they do to raise awareness for a certain type of cause.
From a business standpoint, professional sports can often be seen as job creators. Direct employment can be arranged for the coaches and hiring of different positions on the staff. Direct employment can also be considered people selling food and merchandise in the facilities. Other ways professional organizations can indirectly support our economy could include tourism, spending at the stadiums, and construction and renovation of the stadiums. Tourism can help with local economies because it will cause further support for small businesses, and people will have to stay in hotels and eat at restaurants. Spending money at the game can bring attention to smaller businesses and can increase the popularity of the specific business. Renovations of stadiums can also lead to more construction jobs which helps out the local construction businesses.
Communities play big roles and are heavily involved with the school. Using the towns of Beacon Falls and Prospect, people in town will support fundraisers, come to games and support, and even after a big championship win, there will be a firetruck escort waiting for you right after you get off the highway. That kind of support shows how much the town cares about young athletes.
Sports teams will also find ways to give back to their community as well. This past year, the Baseball team held a cornhole tournament, the Football team helped set up the Beacon Falls Carnival, and the Dance team held a car wash for people from town. These are just a few examples of community events where sports teams will give back to the community.
Sports hold the power to do much more than entertain. They can help you develop as a person, unite communities, bring awareness to social issues, and help the economy. Whether it’s your local high school team or a big sports business like the NFL, sports drastically impacts on someone’s character and society as a whole.
