The first organized sport was Little League baseball for Mars Hill in rural Chilton County Alabama. I played catcher for one year. A couple three years later I played Babe Ruth baseball. My dad loved baseball, but I found out in was not for me.
I tried basketball
as a high school freshman. We were in a league of ninth graders that were too
tall for the seventh and eighth grade and too immature for high school. We had
a great season losing one game that season.
I went out
for football in the seventh grade and loved it. Unfortunately, it left me too
injured to play basketball. My family was poor, and I could only play one sport.
I chose football. I can testify that in all three organized events I watched
the first game of each from the sideline. I did watch Mars Hill’s semi-pro
baseball games but that was it.
My first
football banquet was a unique experience. It was a big night for Jemison High
School football. We for runner-up state champions in Alabama 4-A high school football.
I rode the banquet with my cousins and met my date there. Mom got her a corsage,
and I gave it to her. She came with her parents and brothers.
The meal
was delicious. My favorite dish was the apple cobbler with ice cream top. It
was the first time I had ever had what I learned was pie-a-mode. I had never
been to extravagant event in my life.
After the
meal they presented everyone on the team with a certificate of participation.
Those that played received a letter “J” for Jemison that could be sewn on a
sweater or jacket. I had played a total of three plays all year, but I was a
practice team dummy. I was ignorant about such happenings and awards.
Several
trophies were given that night. I made up my mind that I was going to win a
trophy. Two years later my junior year the team awarded me with the “Best
Defensive Player” trophy. My senior year they honored me with “Most Valuable Defensive
Player” trophy.
By the
time my daughter was playing volleyball awards were inclusive. When I attended
me sports banquet, every player received a trophy and there were no accolades for
the top player or players.
My
daughter's freshman year while in State Volleyball Tournament, judges had my
daughter in first place to win a trophy. Aware that My daughter was in the
running for one of the tournament trophies, her coach pulled her from the game.
Judges scratched her from the ballet. Her coach told my daughter that she did
not want her to have an award.
A year or
two later my daughter played in a regional tournament receiving an award. One
again her coach was everyone gets the same reward, no special awards. The sponsoring
regional tournament coach sent my daughter trophy to Jemison High School, and
the principal awarded my daughter in front of the whole school.
I thought
such shenanigans were wrong back then. I knew from ninth grade civics class
that socialism and atheist communism wanted everyone to receive the same wages
regardless of the expertise of the worker. Fast forward to the last few years
and inclusion, quotas, mandates, and political correctness want everyone to get
the same award. The end result is mediocrity.
My brother
took his crew to dinner one day. Most of his crew were younger workers. They
were in favor of socialism in the United States. Not seeing anything wrong, my
brother used the tip for the waitress as an example.
They had
agreed that their waitress did an exemplary job. My brother asked them if it
was fair to give the tip the restaurant to disperse it equally among the
waiters and waitresses.
They all said no that it belonged to the waitress that served them. He told his
employees that is the difference between socialism and awarding a job well
done.
Know ye
not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run,
that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in
all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an
incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly;
so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and
bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to
others, I myself should be a castaway. I Corinthians 9:24-27 KJV
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