- December 26, 2024
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Editor's Note: This letter was written in response to a guest editorial by fifth-grader Richard Rigby.
It was a cold and blustery night on the football field in late October on Long Island. My eighth-grade football team was in a championship game for the first time in memory against a perennial powerhouse, and we were down by three points with less than two minutes left in the game.
We were not having much success running the ball against a larger team, so our coach decided to fake a running play to our star back and hand the ball to me up the middle. I was mainly a blocking back, so we caught the other team by surprise, and I was able to run for a 60-yard touchdown that won the game.
What I remember most of the celebration after the game was seeing my mom from a distance coming toward me to give me a hug. I was stunned that she was there as she was working a 3-11 shift as a nurse and somehow had received permission to come to the game during her shift.
As a single parent, it was not easy for her to be at all the events of her four children, but somehow she managed. Today, I remember that night often as I look at my mom, her mind now degraded from the onset of dementia.
Because of my experience with sports growing up, I take great pride and satisfaction in sponsoring our Flagler Sheriff’s Police Athletic League youth sports programs. Sports can be a great leveler. At its best, it does not discriminate based on race, creed, sex, color or economic condition. Sports will teach you how to win honorably, lose gracefully, respect authority, work with others, manage your time and stay out of trouble.
Having spent 15 years playing organized sports as a kid and the past 25 years as a parent, I have seen my fair share of the type of behavior Mr. Rigby talked about in his editorial piece last month. No doubt about it: Parents, players, referees and/or organizers can be a distraction and ruin the overall beneficial effects of sports for everyone.
But here’s the deal, Richard: Sports is an imitation of life. It gives us the triumphs and defeats and the exultation and disappointments perhaps in a more intense way than our lives do, but still similar enough. There will always be those who either intentionally or, by their behavior, attempt to dull the joy of the things or people we love most. Rather than letting it affect your happiness at playing baseball or sports in general, you should feel sorry for them and try to overcome their distracting behavior.
The bottom line and what is most important is that your parents are there with you to share in your successes and disappointments, and that will always be the case just as you will be there for them when they need to rely on you.
Jim Manfre is the sheriff of Flagler County.
