Prague 54-Istanbul 27 this afternoon at 3:30, which was a relief, but that was followed by #1 Warsaw defeating us 38-26 at 6:30 this evening, putting us into fourth place (out of 6) for the playoffs tomorrow. Interesting experience working with young adolescents in this way. A tremendous learning experience for them and a real exercise in responsibility and concentration and cooperation, though I did have to lose my temper half way through the game with Warsaw. A bit of screaming from the sidelines and scolding as well, for sitting on the benches after the Instanbul win, feeling complacent and eating M & M's, instead of properly warming up. My lesbian friends would refer to the whole enterprise as a futile and silly display of the "male competitive ethos," but they would be wrong. Much more going on here than simply "ruling the world," especially in terms of sportsmanship and camaraderie, cooperation and learning how to lose gracefully with one's self respect intact and one's enthusiasm for the game, especially its esthetic aspects, undiminished. If only all wars could be settled this way.
Jayden Cameron reporting from The Howard Johnson Hotel, Bucharest, for Gay Mystic Sports News.
2 comments:
Jayden, I too would disagree with your lesbian friends. Competitive sports is a very good pathway to the understanding of cooperative goal attainment--which is what spirituality is ultimately about.
I once coached a group of like aged girls in a similar basektball tournament. They were mostly a highschool JV cheerleading squad. I got assigned this after they were horribly humiliated in their first game. This happened at a Catholic summer camp. I was the theology instructor.
Having seen their debacle of a first game I knew I had to come up with something totally outside the box. I told them we would concentrate strictly on defense, because done right, defense was like cheerleading--a highly coordinated team effort. I taught them a couple of zone defenses and a little man to man. Our entire offense consisted of one thought-head man the ball, score a lay up. The idea was for an agressive defense to generate easy uncontested offense.
In the championship game the cheerleaders won 42-12. The highly publicised female jocks were embarrassed. Moral of the story is great defensive team work beats individual offensive ego everyday everytime.
You're hired! Please come to Prague. The boys came in last, poor lads, but were very chipper and good humored about it. Said they were going to tell everyone back at school that 'they left the trophy on the airplane.'I'm a dottering old fool for doing this with nary a strategy in my head, but there was no one else! Had a great time with them apart from the final results. Great kids.
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