Past the ball into the heart of the game

Our readers may have noticed that the sports section of the Hampshire Review has taken on a different feel for the past couple of weeks. A portion of this change is due to the inevitable “slowing down” of organized sports in the summer months. However, the change is also due to the individual behind the pages venturing into the world of sports for the first time.
Growing up submerged in the arts, I’ve never had much background or interest in sports. Physical education was always one of my least favorite subjects, not because I didn’t enjoy being active but because I found out quickly that I am not very athletically inclined. Because I was lacking in this area, I developed a huge fear of letting my teammates or myself down. I began to project my aversion for PE upon sports in general.
As I grew older, my knowledge of sports didn’t grow with me, nor was I interested in investing the time it would take for me to learn. I joined show choir and flourished there, picking up other artistic hobbies and focusing on my studies, and while I would attend the occasional sporting event, I did so more for the sake of socialization than for the privilege of watching the game.
It wasn’t until my freshman and sophomore year of college that I started to take an interest in basketball, simply by submersion. The more I learned the rules of the game, the more I enjoyed watching.
By my junior year of college, I began to realize that my dislike for sports was due to ignorance, and yet, I didn’t know where to begin. I realized that I would have to start at the beginning, learning all the rules of various sports that most of my peers had spent their entire lives learning from participation and observation.
When I started an internship here at the Hampshire Review, I had no idea that I would be spending three weeks writing sports. In fact, sports never even crossed my mind when I was thinking of what I may be asked to write. But the past month has completely enlightened me to things that I once was completely ignorant and closed-minded to.
I discovered that a lot of truths, tricks and strategies aren't as foreign to me as I once believed. I found sports to be something that I truly can relate to.
Talking with athletes and their fans, I could never, previously, understand their near-obsession and love for their game or games of choice. It never made sense to me why athletes and especially fans could get so hyped or enraged about people chasing a ball around a field or court.
But now I see that it’s so much more than that.
Sports require so much quick, smooth and strategic thinking. An athlete has to be able to visualize a play, predict what his or her opponent may do and take a lot of risks. There’s little chance for mistake in the games. That’s where the competitive, perfectionist, almost obsessive nature of an athlete comes in.
When athletes are in the game, they live for the moment. They live for the next play and give their all to every situation in order to succeed. I think that’s something that every human being would like to say about his or her own life.  It gives a person or a team a sense of triumph when they can say that they’ve given their all to something. It’s exciting and empowering when all hard work, whether in the game or in real life, pays off.
I’m ashamed of ever considering that a majority of athletes were careless or lacking in other areas of intelligence. Although one will run across the occasional ‘simpleton,’ a person such as this can be found in any activity or occupation in life. In fact, the majority of talented athletes that I have encountered have been little short of genius, excelling in their areas of study and in their social lives.
 It seems obvious that if athletes were as simple as some make them out to be, then they wouldn’t be playing at all. There’s just too much effort, motivation, planning and skill required in the games for someone of little thought to participate.
I also believe that if it weren’t for the fans, sports wouldn’t be nearly as exciting.  I think watching sports is most enjoyable when you can identify with a team or two — teams that you have a lot of faith in and can emotionally travel with them through the ups and downs of the season, rejoicing in their triumphs, becoming angered at any injustice or sulk at their defeat. It’s almost like reading a book or watching a television series, giving fans something to identify with.
Sports have the power to connect people socially. They are a topic for discussion and act as a unifying force in group or family situations. Conversations beginning on the topic of sports could end up anywhere from more sports to moral truths.
The places where sports have taken me, intellectually, in the past three weeks are boundless. There are far too many truths behind sports to share.
I do hope, however, that anyone who knows little about athletics would take a deeper look and go to a sporting event or two. Talk to some athletes and let them share what their game means to them.
Sports have many lessons to teach about dedication, faith, strength, courage and teamwork — all of which are virtues important in any occupation or area of life.
Learn the rules of the game; if I could learn them, then anyone can.
If a person can look on sports with knowledge of what they’re seeing and wisdom to see past the ball into the real heart of the game, then transformation is inevitable.