새전북신문

[잉그리드 전주살이] Sports for students

기사 작성: 잉그리드 - 2012.07.26 19:51

Last week I went to my other home, Canada. I arrived at my sister's house the day before three of my nephews had football games. Now, when I say football, I do not mean soccer, I mean big guys (well, medium in my nephews' cases) wearing shoulder pads and helmets kicking and throwing a ball with two pointy ends. I was happy to watch my nephews play because living in Korea I miss that part of my life, watching family grow and develop. All three of them play for different age groups of the same club, the TNT Express. The youngest, Seth, played well but his team lost. The next oldest, Neil, plays defense so he doesn't have any chance of scoring touchdowns but he does get to tackle the quarterback, which is something he likes to do and is good at when he can find him. They won. The oldest of the three players (I have one more in this family but he's in university so he doesn't have time to play), Colin, is a really good player. He is a receiver so that means the quarterback throws to him when he is open and he can score points. His team lost but they had already qualified for the playoffs so it didn't matter.

It started off as a very sunny day and since I didn't have any sunscreen I expected a sunburn and covered up, but suddenly it grew overcast and started raining during the second game. The game continued anyway. It stopped raining as quickly as it had started and the sun came out with a vengeance. In the middle of the last game it rained with strong winds even harder than before. The boys never paused until lightning filled the sky. When it got close, the referees cleared the field. The other team sought refuge until the field house but my nephew's team stayed on the sidelines. Most of the parents huddled under umbrellas that were ineffective in a rain that came sideways under the umbrellas. The only part of me that was not soaked was the book and camera I was carrying and my sister's bag. We thought that they were going to call the game but the rain let up, the lightning stopped and the game continued. As I said, they lost but the game was really exciting. I watched his playoff game the next Sunday. My nephew got two touchdowns, several field goals and received several kickoffs and covered a lot of the field. I was a very proud aunt.

A few days after that I went to see my other sister. I arrived a few minutes late but they waited for me to go down to Niagara and watch my niece play soccer, yes, like the World Cup kind. She's a pretty good athlete, too. She loves soccer and takes contact on the field without blinking, can ground a high ball and hit the ball with her head. And she had only just finished grade 6. Of the football players, the youngest has also just finished grade 6, the others grade 8 and 12. These are sports they play during vacation. The football players also play in fall leagues.

Organized sports like these are something I keenly feel is missing in Korea. Everyone thinks studying is the only thing that is important for success in life. I disagree. Playing sports is what kept me interested in school. If I didn't keep my grades up I wasn't allowed too play. The same goes for my nephews and niece. And sports is more than just exercise. It can be a way of life. On teams you learn to work together, support each other and a certain amount of self discipline. Parents are involved and come to the games and support their kids. That way the children can feel their parents are very involved in their lives and pride from their parents. And the coaches can teach the players too. The motto of TNT Express is Work hard! Never quit! Lots of valuable life lessons and good reasons to spend some time playing sports. /전주교대 교수

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[잉그리드 전주살이] Sports for students

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