Church Basketball?

Don't ask me why, but I always end up playing a game or two of church basketball every year, usually when one of the guys calls me and tells me that they might forfeit if I can't come. I played tonight, and we had to forfeit anyway because we were short by one player. So the other team loaned us three guys and we played anyway. You would think that it would have been just for fun, but somehow there is always at least one poor sport that spoils it for everyone.

In this case it was a big guy that was fairly agile for his rotundity, but constantly pushing his weight around. No problem for me - I'm small and quick and I just stay out of his way. About halfway through the game, he was bringing the ball down the court and I reached in and swiped it from him. He fumbled around with it for a half-second, and then it went out of bounds, clearly with him touching it last. The referee correctly gave my team the ball, but this guy had to argue with the referee, who just ignored him. So he decided to take matters into his own hands. He went out of his way to push me in the back two times in subsequent action, and another player on my team several more times. The referees took some notice (when they were in a position to see it), but it didn't seem to matter to this moron. We discussed it with his teammates who were playing for our team, and they agreed that he was a real downer to play with - a very poor loser and cheapshot.

I'm not big into competitive athletics - I played ball when I was 10 or 11 for a couple of years in an organized league, and it just didn't come easily for me. Part of it was that my Dad was so intense - not like the obnoxious parents that scream at coaches and refs, but he was pretty hard on me. He probably didn't understand that it wasn't my thing. Of course, I had been the one to ask if I could play, because I had some neighbor friends who were going to play. Dad had played a lot of baseball and basketball when he was younger, and I get the picture that he understood the fundamentals pretty well.

I enjoyed playing yard hockey or scrimmage football in the yard or the field with friends, and I really enjoyed playing basketball in the neighbor's backyard, but that was entirely different than playing in an organized league where the stakes and emotions seem a little higher. It was just for fun in those settings, and I wanted it to be the same in the league play, but it just wasn't. You know, we got pretty competitive in field hockey, and got pretty bruised up sometimes, but we never went out for blood, and we respected each other.

Later on in high school, I went out for cross-country and track, preferring to push my endurance rather than bump and bruise with other egotistic numskulls in contact sports on the court or field. I used the time running to think about what mattered to me and organize my thoughts. I became fairly good, reaching a personal best of a 5:00 mile. I was competing against myself, and it was very good for my health and self-esteem. I have continued to enjoy the health benefits of this type of activity. I have run seven marathons, many half-marathons, and other races of lesser length. I have climbed many high mountains, and I love to hike and camp.

One of my favorite recent books, An Education For Our Time, by Josiah Bunting, stresses the value of contact sports. And truly, there must be something to what he is saying. For him, contact sports allow us to simulate something akin to combat in a non-life-threatening environment. Greek and Roman statesmen believed the same to be true. So did the chivalric orders of the middle ages. And almost any formal classical education contains the physical study of warfare and team sports in the curriculum.

So why does the church ball experience, or the NBA, the NFL, etc, etc, not seem to measure up to what Josiah Bunting has to say? Why does it seem like such a negative experience for me whenever the stakes are raised? And why did my dad like his own sports experiences when he was younger?

I believe that the experience that Josiah Bunting and my dad value is more difficult to find in organized athletics today. There are several elements necessary for the experience to have the same educational power that it once did.

• The game must focus on the fundamentals. Every sport has a certain set of basic guidelines as to how it is played.
• Players must be willing to respect the rules of the game. If a rule is broken, or a foul is committed, all agree that there are consequences.
  
• The team must employ strategy and stick to their gameplan.
• It's about teamwork, and not about the individual. Players shouldn't seek personal glory, but team success.
• It's not all about winning. In a contest of two teams, one team comes out on top. But the other team needs to take defeat with honor. You learn as much from losing, maybe even more than winning.
• You need to seek physical excellence from the game. It is a great opportunity to be physically agile and strong.
• There must be integrity on the part of every participant, the players, the coaches, and the officials.
• In the end, each participant needs to remember that it is just a game. They should be able to shake hands and congratulate each other and then return to the activities of normal life better for the experiences they have had.

I think that these types of sports can have value, but I've met many men who feel the same way I do about them - they have little or no value to their lives. And that is truly unfortunate.

As for me, I think I will avoid these experiences, for the most part, and stick to my running. For the warfare study, I'll keep paintball and shooting as a big part of my personal field of focus. And of course I will occasionally enjoy a backyard game, just like the old days.