Lessons from the Championship Game

Last Friday, at 2:30 PM, our school, the Montessori De Sagrada Familia (MDSF), faced Notre Christi Academy of Philippines (NCAP) at the championship game of the 2015 BulPriSA (Bulacan Private Schools Association).

Now, I'm not really a sports fan. I'm really not. I don't like watching sports and I don't like participating in sports but I really enjoyed watching the game. It was intense and everyone was either standing up or gripping the edge of their seats from excitement. They had three overtimes before they ended up with the score 91-93 in favor of our school. But what really struck me is that in the midst of the shouting people and the even louder sound of my thudding heart, I was able to learn something wonderfully unique from God.

1. Everyone wants you to do well, but only few asks you how you feel.

As the game intensified, people repeatedly shouted for their favorite player to shoot or to do well and to be frank, I was one of them. But I think some players become more and more pressured and they get easily irritated by both themselves or others when they don't do well. I guess, in the midst of severe pressure, it helps to have someone who asks how you are no matter how well or how bad you are doing. After all, we are more than what we do or how we perform…

2. Pride has no place in a team.

The Sagradan Knights and their coaches after the big game. 

Being part of a team, whether you are in sports, in school, or in your profession is a great thing. But the greatest problem in being part of a team is PRIDE. Pride should have no place in a team. If you have pride, you get INSECURE and you start comparing yourself to others. Is he scoring more points than you? Is he being acknowledged more? Does he have more fans than you???

Pride causes us to puff up our chest and prove to everyone that we are better.

But in a team, you win as a team, you lose as a team. They say there is no I team, I say there is because a team is made up of individual I's that makes it successful. But that I should have let go of selfish pride and work together with the team.

3. It's not just the team who has to be a good sport the audience need to be taught how to be good sports too.

As the game intensifies, I felt the pressure not just for the players to perform better, but also for the audience to scream or shout louder. The passion of the audience increases, so does their tendency to use profanity (hey it rhymes!). There is also the tendency to boo the other teams when they perform well… It's all good fun and all but sometimes it escalates. Although I didn't see it at last week's game, but the audience need to be taught how to be good sports too both during and after the game.