Kirk Mango's blog

In part I of It’s All In Your Point of View, I detailed a discussion my friend Jim and I had on the way home from a tennis match recently. This discussion centered its focus on the differences between our perspectives on our collegiate sports experiences compared to many of today’s youths, and their parents’, perspective.

"Be an athlete who chooses their own path becoming one who makes a difference, and part of a team’s solution, otherwise your path will be chosen for you and instead of being a solution you become part of a team's problem."

I was on my way home from a tennis match with a friend of mine (we both play for our club team here in Naperville Illinois), and we struck up a conversation regarding our own personal experiences and perspectives on college athletic participation. We were both college athletes, he was a ball player at SIU and I a gymnast at NIU. What I found most interesting about our conversation was that both of us had the same viewpoint on how we saw our collegiate athletic experience.

Below is a link to a videotaped recent incident of a coach pushing an 11-year-old out of a handshake line after a youth football game. It is obvious that the coach was very aggressive toward the youth; however, it does not show anything that might have caused such an inappropriate response. Take a look:

Coach Shoves 11-year-old player: link 1

or

Coach Shoves 11-year-old player: link 2

“Putting forth the effort to accomplish something others believe to be impossible brings with it intrinsic rewards not usually found on the 'easier path'. Facing this type of adversity with determination and will on your side creates the opportunity for achievement not easily seen by doubters. In the end, however, it will not be the achievement of your goal that will hold the most value but the willingness to travel such an arduous path toward a goal which only you see as within your grasp.”

The concept of giving opportunity to all interested athletes wanting to participate in competitive sports, up through high school, is certainly an initiative worth looking at. I wholeheartedly agree, in principle, with the idea that the positive learning experiences, intrinsic values, and life lessons taught through participation in youth sports behooves us to examine the possibility of “no-cut” policies across the board.

Developing guidelines to address issues apparent in Part I of Performance Enhancement: Where Do We Draw the Line is certainly easier said than done; the complexities are obvious. What I would like to do is create a starting place, a beginning, from which we (and athletes) can more easily determine the point of performance enhancement that must never be crossed. The hope is to allow athletes the ability to continue striving toward their full athletic potential without risking their character and integrity or their physical/mental/emotional wellbeing.

We could make this simple and just say that using any performance enhancement deemed illegal is where:

> proper athletic training ends and cheating begins

> the attitude of “winning at all costs” exhibits major control

> the eroding of character/integrity establishes a strong foothold

Another four years has come and gone since the summer games of 2004 in Athens. My enthusiasm has certainly waned a little from what it was in my younger days, due in large part to the influx of professional athletes. (There was just something to be said for overcoming the adversity our amateur athletes faced in the old days.) However, there are several individuals/events/sports that have truly sparked my interest and motivation. I am looking forward to seeing how all the stories unfold. Here are my own picks for the games and why:

A conversation between myself and my daughter’s fiancé regarding character (or lack thereof) and sports, possible endorsees for my book Becoming a True Champion – which certainly has a focus on character and integrity as a foundational principle, and the state of affairs with many elite and professional athletes today, prompted several questions. If an athlete, or any person for that matter, makes a poor character choice, a mistake (i.e.