We have had a period of tremendous individual and team success across a range of sports. There have been gold medal performances by our athletes and rugby league players, national and local championship winning displays by our basketball teams and a cup triumph for our footballers.
We are naturally proud of these achievements and recognise the important contribution that sport makes to the school’s ethos. The characteristics which earn success in sport can be translated to other spheres of life. For example, the famous American jockey, Willie Shoemaker, is quoted as saying:
“Desire is the most important factor in the success of any athlete.”
I am sure our year 11s will recognise the parallel with gaining top examination results!
The following quotation from the sports journalist Heywood Broun could also be applied to preparing for academic challenges:
“Sports do not build character. They reveal it.”
Sport often polarises opinion. There was a time not so long ago when many schools shied away from its competitive element. It has however always been my view that striving to compete with the very best is what we should do in every aspect of school life. That is not to say it’s all about winning. I suppose one of the most oft repeated sporting quotations is from Grantland Rice:
“For when the One Great Scorer comes
To write against your name,
He marks - not that you won or lost -
But how you played the game.”
By way of a contrasting view I quite like the former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly’s comment:
“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don’t like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.”
Similarly, the American football coach Red Sanders claimed:
“Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.”
I hope we strike a healthy balance between participation, enjoyment and success. Sport is something from which you can derive pleasure and friendship throughout your life. It also, of course, contributes to maintaining a healthy lifestyle which is why I feel I must finish with another, unattributed quotation which I found while researching this article:
“It’s not who won or lost the game: it’s how you sold the beer.”