Why am I writing about sportsmanship on my site? You may be wondering what sportsmanship has to do with police work, the laws, and crime. It could have everything to do with these things or nothing at all. As with everything else you do in your life, there are rules and regulations for games and sports. Everyone knows it’s fun to win. Do you want to win at any cost or would you rather win because you played by the rules and won the game fairly? Are you only happy when you win or are you happy just knowing you did the best you could even though you lost?
      Before you even sign up to play a sport, you should read about the rules. Learn what’s allowed while playing the game. If you don’t agree with any of the rules or think you can just ignore the rules, you probably shouldn’t sign up. You can seriously hurt or injure either yourself, a teammate, or someone on the other team by not following the rules. If the team has a good coach, he won’t allow you to be a part of the team if you’re always breaking the rules.
      Sometimes, the coach of the team will tell you to break the rules. If this happens, play the game by the rules even if it means the coach might decide to bench you or kick you off the team. As soon as possible, report the coach to your parents, the school, or another official who can talk to the coach about cheating. If no one will do anything and the coach keeps telling you to cheat or break the rules, it’s better to quit the team and not play at all then to keep doing the wrong thing.
      Parents will sometimes tell their kids to cheat or break the rules in order to make the team or because they’re the people who want to win no matter what has to be done to win. The worst thing you can do is cheat to please your parents. It doesn’t matter if your dad wants you to be the star shortstop, the next Olympic gymnast, or get a scholarship as the best tackle in the country, you should get those things because you earned them by being the best player you can be, not because you cheated.
      One of my friends played on the Pop Warner football team sponsored by our school. He was one of the best receivers in the county and everyone said he’d be great in high school and would probably get a scholarship to play in college. Toward the end of a very close game, he was tackled. As he was pushing himself up from the ground, a player on the other team stepped on my buddy’s hand and twisted his cleats into his fingers. After an investigation by the league, they found out the opposing player did that on purpose to knock my buddy out of the game because he thought it was the only way his team could win. His hand was so messed up, he couldn’t play football any more.
      Do you want to be like the kid above? Do you want to hurt people to win a game? No matter who tells you to cheat, stick to the rules and show you’re a good sport. Always play by the rules. Winning or losing isn’t the goal of the game. Sports are about having fun and doing your best, no matter what anyone else tells you.