Yay Hurricanes!!!

No, not the hockey team (though they're cool, too, no pun intended).

Nope, yay for the Heritage Hills Hurricanes, the swim team Grace swims on.

This team is typically one of the top three in the Chapel Hill Summer Swim League (which has seven teams total), and they are duly proud of that.

And, like most youth sports teams, they stress that winning isn't everything, and that good sportsmanship and having fun are more important than the final score.

And they really mean it!

I commented to a couple of friends after one meet that I timed for that I could NOT move into a certain neighborhood in Chapel Hill, or at least not without retaining my Heritage Hills swim membership, because I couldn't let my child swim for that team. Grace's team is taught from an early age to stay in their lanes after a race until the swimmers on either side have finished the race, congratulate them, and THEN get out. Now, the little kids frequently forget this, but they're reminded every meet, and the parents are reminded every meet, and the coaches talk about it every meet, and the volunteers are asked to remind the kids every meet, all in the hopes that by the time they're older, they WILL remember.

I've never seen a Heritage Hills swimmer over the age of about 9 NOT stay in the pool. At the meet with the unnamed-neighborhood, I saw MANY of their kids get out of the pool when they were done without even glancing to the right or left, and more than once saw them get out when there was a kid right next to them with their hand stuck out to congratulate them. And no one seemed to care, which is what bugged me.

But, I think the swim team really showed their sportsmanship colors this past week. Grace's team had, we thought, and undefeated season as a team. However, one of our volunteers realized that in an event a couple of weeks ago, they had given us points for first and second, and the other team points for third, which was the reverse of what really happened.

Now, in the swimming world, representatives (i.e. parent volunteers) from both teams have to sign off on the score sheet. Once it's signed off on, it's done. The meet's over, the winner is announced, and it's done. And this score sheet had been signed off on.

But it was wrong. And we knew it was wrong.

So, they called the other swim team to let them know of the error, and called the league to let them know of the error, and it was corrected. And, rather than winning that meet by 10 points, we lost by 4, and are now tied with that team for the best record in the regular season.

Now, how many college teams would do that? Heck, how many HIGH SCHOOL teams would do that, and don't even get me started on the pros!

How many referees, knowing they made a bad call, would insist it be corrected?

For that matter (giving kudos to the other team), how many college or professional coaches, having been informed of an error, would work to figure out a solution rather than turning it into a sound-bite media frenzy?

I love how my team acted, because this is what sports, particularly recreational sports, are supposed to teach kids. Do the right thing. Play fair. Don't lie. Don't cheat. Along with, of course, do your best, try hard, etc.

But so often, parents SAY all of that, and then scream at a ref when they make a close call. Or DQ a kid. Or call off a shot because time has expired. So often parents blame someone else for a loss; a coach, a ref, a player. So often, parents show, by their body language if not their verbal language, that winning matters, and matters a lot.

And, yes, winning is fun. No one denies that, and when we thought we were undefeated, we loved being undefeated.

But it's nice to know that there are still people who really do believe that winning isn't everything.