Head of School’s Notebook | Sport

November 9, 2018

As a boy I got goosebumps when I heard Jim McKay’s voice introducing each new episode of the Wide World of Sports. Who can forget the language or the imagery: “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” My brothers and I would never miss the show and would gasp – no matter how many times we saw it – when that ill-fated ski jumper tumbled off the end of the ramp. We knew loss, too, though never on so grand a stage.

Sports were a central part of our lives from birth through college, and even beyond. We competed with each other, of course. Only two and a half years separated the three of us, so it’s easy to imagine the battles we waged. But we competed together too, on hockey and soccer teams, as doubles partners on the tennis court, in little league and pony ball. We were formidable, and we derived a good deal of our confidence through sport.

I think about that fact often when I watch my own children compete, or when I roam the fields and gymnasiums of the Mesa in the afternoon. There is something about the energy of sport and the interdependent character of it that I find inspiring and invigorating. I remember watching my youngest son come jogging off the field in a football playoff game last year, after stopping the ball carrier on fourth down behind the line of scrimmage. “I love this game … I love this game,” he purred as he neared the sideline.

Several years earlier I was there when one of our swimmers, in the final meet of the year, put up an unprecedented time in her 100 meter freestyle race to secure the league championship for Cate and gain a berth for herself in the CIF individual meet. She was in disbelief, seemingly unaware that she had it in her to swim that fast.

And yet others knew: her coaches and teammates, the fans who cheered her on, and maybe deep down inside she guessed it too. But only she could make it happen. I think of moments like that when I hear questions raised about the role of athletics in education. The recent court case involving Harvard University and its admission practices has revealed certain commitments that the College makes to athletes who will compete on its teams. And there has been much in the press about whether or not such practices are fair and appropriate for an institution of higher learning.

I can’t speak to the admission practices question, but I can say that any community committed to learning should be committed as well to sport. We do ourselves and our young people a great disservice if we suggest that learning is about the mind, and only the mind. Every area of endeavor offers vast opportunities for learning and growth. And the broader the engagements of the students, the broader and more comprehensive the education they receive.

I have begun to wonder, in my this my 31st year in education, if the greatest gift we can give our students is not any particular aptitude – mental or physical – but simply confidence. That comes, ironically, not through achievement alone, though that is part of it, but through struggle and challenge. We see that in classrooms. But it’s on the fields and courts too. It’s in the pool, in the fitness center, and on the track and cross-country course. It’s in each student and athlete who didn’t know they had it in them, until they did. In most cases, it doesn’t matter where the confidence comes from, or what area of endeavor elicits it. All that matters is that it’s there, in our young people, galvanizing them in the face of challenge, and assuring them that regardless of the impediments before them, they can and will make it through.

Victory and defeat – the kind Jim McKay talked about – those are ancillary details, ways to mark improvement or fortify commitment. But the lesson in the end is not about the outcome of the contests. It’s about what’s inside the competitors, what knowledge they derive from the contests or the preparation required for them, what it means to be a teammate and to rely on each other completely, and how all of the ensuing understandings and discoveries can be expressed in the lives the competitors lead off the field of play. That is what sport is for, and it’s why it is an important part of every education at Cate.