Sean's Shadow Spiel  

 We are born into this world dependant on someone else to survive, yet once we land on our two feet we strive to be independent (see the Terrible Twos); with that begins one of the themes of life-trying to make it on our own, while deep inside knowing that we need others to help us while on our life's journey.  With this theme in mind, either consciously or subconsciously, we soon place our children in environments with other children to help them learn to "play" with others because we have discovered that our lives become much more difficult and less satisfying if we do not learn to work with and encourage others.  We can look no further than our family structure to know that we need each other, and yet there are struggles.  We want to be independent but are very much dependent; these antagonist energies pull against us all our lives.  To help our children learn to cope with this challenge, we try to teach our children to be "sharers," and enroll them into activities that involve others - daycares, dancing, preschool, gymnastics...and soccer.

Team sports can be a great teacher of life's rewards and life's struggles.  What is learned from being a part of a team?  Of significance, in my opinion, is that we can accomplish more if we give up part of our own selfish ambitions.  If we only strive to please ourselves, our experiences become very shallow and usually fall short of the team's potential (or in real life the community's, the school district's, the neighborhood's or the country's potential.)  Michael Jordan never won a NBA title until Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant showed up; LeBron could not do it on his own in Cleveland.  Barcelona had to sell Ibrahimovic and insert Villa to perform as they are now (Iniesta being healthy helps too, but that's a different topic!)  I would think that as a parent, more than wins and losses, we want our child to learn that it is important to think of others first, to give up something of your own so that the group can become stronger, to work hard for your teammate always and to work with others towards a common goal.  These are some of the greatest lessons in playing a team sport, I believe.  They are tangible lessons that can translate over to the rest of our life if we are intentional about our teaching and our learning.

I preach many times to my Whitworth team the importance of being a "good" teammate.  More than anything, this is what I want them to be (I also believe success will follow if this occurs.)  As parents, I am sure we hope that our child would also carry and foster these "good" teammate attributes, and I do think that we have a plethora of good teammates within our club!  Our kids are going to grow up to be good spouses, neighbors, employees, employers and community members.  One of the hardest things to do is to give up yourself for the betterment of others; to sacrifice your own desires so that the greater group can forge a stronger and better path, yet to know that the group desperately depends on you to give your best if it is to succeed.  Our players are learning this.  As adults, I hope we are reminded (and perhaps taught along the way) as we watch our kids play, learn, struggle and succeed that we need to be good teammates also!

Enjoy your soccer,

Sean Bushéy

Technical Director

Spokane Shadow Youth Soccer Club

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