Does Sports Participation Build Character???

I had the opportunity to attend a 3D Coaching Clinic this weekend sponsored by Fellowship of Christian Athletes.  The entire clinic was a blessing and a great learning opportunity.  I am thankful for the chance I had to go and learn.  The presenter was a man by the name of Kerry O'Neil and the following thoughts come from him and his organization with a few of my thoughts sprinkled in.

One of the many questions he asked was:  "Does Participating in Sports Build Character?"  Since the room was filled with 40 or so coaches the overwhelming response was "Yes, Absolutely, sports build character."  Mr. O'Neil's next question of course was "What character traits do sports build."  Typically, the answers provided (one came from me) were Dedication, Teamwork, Sacrifice, Time-Management, Organization, etc.  You could probably add a few others to the list but that is the basic idea and all the coaches in the room agreed.  Mr. O'Neil then rocked my world.  He said "Do you know who also possesses those qualities in very high amounts other than athletes?  Terrorists and most master criminals."  Terrorists are highly organized, work in teams, manage time well and make tremendous sacrifices to further their cause.  You could hear a pin drop.

Mr. O'Neil explained that the above character traits are "social traits" and while good, they are not ideally what we should be teaching our athletes.  He claimed that as coaches we must be teaching our athletes "moral traits."  For those of us in Christianity we must be teaching the next generation "christian values."  Coaches who only teach, model and require social characteristics are not doing much at all.  He states that to be an effective coach and leader we must be teaching "moral/Christian" character qualities.  Those qualities include empathy, integrity, trust, value of human life.

Mr. O'Neil claims that a 20 year study that involved 70,000 athletes, coaches, parents and and former athletes shows scientifically that participation in sports actually lowers an athletes attainment of "moral values."  That is shocking but looking back over my close to 18 years in coaching I can see how it may be true.  Sports participation is not necessarily valuable in building the "important" values in young people.  Basically, it all comes down to who is coaching and how they are coaching.  We as coaches must be teaching, modeling and requiring our athletes to gain moral/christian values if we are to be effective.