It takes (and it makes) a community to organise kids’ sport

Life lessons: kids’ sport is at the heart of our communities. Picture: Dean Martin

There is something deeply comforting about kids’ sport. It’s not just the cheering, the whistle-blowing, the focus of the familial throng. It’s the centrality of it all to everyday life. Stilled for months by the pandemic, our footy ovals, netball courts and swimming pools have been suddenly and thrillingly brought back to life.

There is so much more to kids’ sport than the exercise; it’s the binding and energising effect it has on communities; the life lessons it teaches every kid. You only have to stroll past a sports field echoing with squeals to feel: All’s right with the world, the kids are back.

I was a sporty kid. I played basketball and Aussie rules. And I swam competitively. I will have you know that I won the Under-12 50m freestyle race at Lismore in Victoria in 1968. I won a towel and my name appeared in the Terang Express. I still have the towel and the newspaper clipping somewhere.

It takes (and it makes) a community to organise kids’ sport. Not just the coaches, the umpires and the timekeepers, but also the parents who organise their weekends to play their part, to make everything happen.

Interviews with adult sports stars invariably start with an acknowledgement of the sacrifices made by a loving and supportive family. And when you hear these stories, you understand why these young stars have been successful. Yes, there’s talent and hard work. But there’s also an unwavering support system behind it all.

Kids’ sport is a powerfully binding agent. There are the endless fundraisers, cake stalls in the high street, earnest applications to council for court upgrades. I went to footy pie nights, participated in swimathons, sold raffle tickets. I remember the lessons of my sports coaches, their insights, their strategies to win, their dissection of losses. Later in life, it isn’t so much the winning that I recall (apart from my Under-12s triumph at Lismore), it’s the feeling that your youth and energy is representing a wider, older, community.

Sport can also be a tonic for kids who may not receive the fullest of support on the home front. Everyone has a role to play in a team; everyone is valued and all team members experience together the elation of victory and the pain of loss.

I especially liked basketball: just five players running up and down a court, manoeuvring, working together, playing to each other’s strengths. What I took from that experience was the importance of on-court chatter. Not only does it help coordinate the play, it also sends signals to the opposition that you’re united, determined and organised. I have taken that into the business world, where I am now in constant communication with all members of my consulting team. Affirming, strategising and including everyone in the everyday play.

There are other life lessons to be learnt from kids’ sport. There’s learning how to be a good loser, to offer congratulations to the winning team at a time of great personal pain. There will be times later in life when you will be passed over – unfairly, in your mind – for promotion. But in that moment, you must be gracious; if you work at it, your time will come.

The lesser-known lesson from kids’ sport is how to be a gracious winner. The right thing to do is to acknowledge the strength, the worthiness, the skills of your opponent. This gracious response builds relationships. Adversaries will want to collaborate with you; they will want to be part of your team.

There’s so much to learn from kids’ sport. Get involved, and it will build strengths that’ll pay dividends for decades to come.