By ROBERT L. LEE

Competitiveness drives a successful sports program, there’s no doubt.

And all parents want to instill some bit of competitiveness in their children to fuel their desire to succeed. The push becomes especially important when the son or daughter is a member of a team and facing off against another similar group on a field or in a gym. But why is it this competitiveness seems to so easily turn to violence? I am in no way trying to preach right or wrong to any parent, but what exactly is the lesson with high school, preparatory sports? It’s not if you can’t beat them, beat them. But what the absurd part of the problem is, it’s not the supposedly hate-everything-filled teenagers stirring the ruckus, it’s their old-enough-to-know-better parents usually heading the strike. Parents and coaches are role models for the children they reach, however thin the relationship is, like it or not. Never have I seen a coach dart across the field and level a much younger athlete for revenge, and the coaches are directly linked to the game at hand. Sure a son or daughter is out there running and sweating for an hour of two, but win or lose, the game of life goes on. There’s probably a test tomorrow in one of the six or seven classes which will have more of an effect on the child’s future. I wonder if these parents are getting as excited over that. Hopefully they won’t be waiting for the straight-A classmate over on the playground at 3 o’clock.

Almost all households should have heard about the recent hockey match, which turned into a boxing match. To break it down, a father beat another man to death because of a game. I understand how it is to lose a temper, but I can only imagine the lasting effect of the experience now burned into the nearby children’s minds. The truly sad part of the story is someday the children of such easily provoked parents has a likely chance of finding themselves re-enacting the event.

Among the most recent examples of what is probably this trickle-down effect which worked its way to the media, a high school basketball star from Millard High in Kentucky was severely beaten by a group of students. Granted this was a rival game and the boy was a figurehead on the team, but for the students to decide to amass a group and send him to the hospital is outrageous. The only thing separating this boy from a kid on the home team is the uniform, and that’s only worn for a minuscule moment in the kid’s life. Now what divides him from both his team and the competitors’ teams is a head injury and a broken hand.

Hopefully the broken hand and the lasting reminder of the attack won’t hinder him from shaking his opponents’ hands after any, if any, future games.

ROBERT L. LEE is the sports editor. You may contact him at 985-652-9545.