Good Sportsmanship?

How do we teach our children good sportsmanship when you have other children out there acting ugly. Thomas and Jack have both had some sports disappointments in the past few days and some of the kids have really been down right ugly. Thomas played yesterday and they only lost by one run. That was great! Their team is young and some of our kids have never even played ball before. We had our end of the season party after the game and our Coach said that one of the other kids went by him in the line and said, "We beat you, We beat you!!" Thomas is just starting to realize there are winners and losers in sports and he does not like to loose. I am trying to teach him that you can be a good winner as well as a good looser. This is very hard to teach a six year old. I told him the kid on the other team was being a poor winner. I also told him that he had to be a good looser. Of course that went in one ear and out the other he had cake and forgot about it.

Jack on the other hand is older and hates to loose. All kids do I know. Jack just seems to take it personally. I think he gets that from his Daddy. Yeah, that's a Daddy trait for sure. Well, he did not make All - Stars this year and he is quite devastated by this. He loves to play ball. He had a really good season this year but his bat was just not there. Last year his batting average was 821, and this year being in player pitch for the first time, his batting average did not get near that. He was walked and hit more times than he hit. Other than that he has had a solid year. He played third base which he has never played before and made some amazing plays there.

There were three kids off of his team that made the All-Stars and they proceeded to rub his face in the fact that he did not make it. Now, how ugly and un-sportsman like is that? They are on the same team and they are ragging him and talking ugly to him because he did not make the All-Stars. I know their parents and I cannot believe they would be so mean. One of the kids is his coaches son. I don't think the coaches heard all this but I am not so sure that they would have done anything about it had they heard it.

I told him that he had to rise above it and that he would face people for the rest of his life that were poor winners. They could not be happy just making the All-Star team they had to be ugly and rag my child because he didn't make the team. I told Jack that this was a character building event. God has his plan for us and it does not always go along with our wants.

I just hate it when kids act ugly to one another. Not to say Jack has not done that, but I don't think he has. I know I do not approve and if I knew I would correct him on it. I guess what really bugs me is that they are supposed to be his teammates. Not Cool at all.