D.H. Lawrence’s short story, “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” was published nearly a century ago, but its soulful lessons apply to America today. An alternative is something I applied as a coach.
After retiring from full-time service, my spouse and I moved to the countryside and settled in to enjoy our “golden years.” Or so we thought…. Before long, a public high school nearby called to say that it needed a wrestling coach. I returned to work with my wife’s enthusiastic support.
After arriving, I learned that the wrestling program suffered from a lack of support. I asked several former students/wrestlers for financial help, and they responded. We established a fund to purchase new singlets, warm-ups, and (very importantly) tee-shirts. From past experience, I knew tee-shirts can help build camaraderie and team spirit. How so? In addition to identifying the school and sport, an inspiring phrase would be displayed as the team’s motto.
I settled on “Iron sharpens Iron,” taken from the King James translation of Proverbs 27:17. Although the school was a public institution, nobody questioned that choice. I even received positive comments about it. “It’s one of my favorites,” a father from another school told me when we wrestled his son’s team.
More importantly, the team understood the reason for selecting those words. It was about the constant quest to improve. Each day, the goal was to make each other better people, students, and wrestlers. For the three years I coached there, each wrestler demanded that of himself and his teammates.
I share this story because I believe it’s important to convey positive narratives about sports, especially what athletics can contribute to young people as they develop and mature.
Unfortunately these days, I’m observing many examples of something quite different.
During the pandemic, I’ve watched sports devolve in the incessant and maniac quest to return to pre-pandemic levels. For example, The Super 32 Wrestling Tournament was held with about 1500 wrestlers competing. The NFL tries to flourish, and MLB held its World Series. The NBA crowned a champion. It’s business as usual.
And even when decision-makers said ‘no, we can’t play–as was the case when the Connecticut scholastic association canceled football–parents with the money formed a club league. The same applies to college sports. Next Saturday, all Power 5 will be playing football, including two conferences that reversed earlier ‘no play’ calls. And because of reduced revenues, a number of colleges and universities have cut less lucrative sports, such as indoor track/field, swimming, wrestling, and baseball. Those sports don’t make turnstiles whirl as do football and men’s basketball.
Why is all of this happening? It’s not about ‘iron sharpens iron.’ It’s about money and ‘my Constitutional Right.’
I fear where this will end. We don’t seem to be able to accept the reality and, instead, keep denying it instead. Ironically, we have failed to ‘scout’ an opponent (like COVID-19) the way coaches and athletes routinely scout an opponent. In a way, we have become like a baseball player at the plate who doesn’t know what the pitcher will likely throw next or an offensive line that plays the same schemes irrespective of defensive alignment.
An alternative would be to decide a course of action based on solid understanding–in this case, a virus–and, then, adjust our behavior to fit what we know. For example, we know that COVID-19 affects human organs. That said, we continue exposing athletes–young athletes, too–to the virus. It’s a trade-off, and a potentially deadly one, too. Benefits come from playing and watching events now. Risks are long-term health impacts.
That approach reminds me of D.H. Lawrence’s, The Rocking-Horse Winner. It’s a short story about a family that begins with the lure of success but ends in tragedy. An alternative is to toughen up, individually and collectively, by understanding and practicing the power that comes when ‘Iron Sharpens Iron.’
