BTBC Day 5

Topic: Favorite sports teams

Zero. 

When I was little I loved the Bulls, but I also thought it was normal that your sports team won every year. My parents would take us to Sox games, maybe because they grew up on the south side, and maybe because the tickets were cheap. When I was 10 I went to a game and for some reason fell in love with Frank Thomas and decided I wanted to marry him. I've since moved on.

Later, my brother turned out to be a Cubs fan so I would learn a fun fact or two about their current stats to help relate a bit more to him. I also liked that Kerry Wood, their pitcher for a few years, and I shared the same name.

I went to a small liberal arts college so not much team pride there. Goooooo TITANS!!!! I was a distance swimmer in college and my events were the 500, 1000 and 1650 free. These are the events that everyone leaves to get snacks for, or it's bathroom time. Sometimes they are run between sessions to an empty house. Thus, distance swimmers are all friends and we'd cheer each other on! Swimming as fast as you can for twenty straight minutes alone is not easy! We'd make our coach so mad encouraging and cheering on the "enemy"! Being a swimmer from age 6-22 and even coaching the little guys from time to time didn't improve my interest in sports. Ask me what Michael Phelps is up to or if Natalie Coglin ( I think that's how you spell it) qualified in something I'll have no idea.

However, I do love the bandwagon, I'll hop on and support and pretend to be interested. Most recently the Blackhawks and the World Cup.

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 I also love ANY excuse I can get to get together with my friends and eat snacks!

Every now and again we will go to a sporting event. Gordon and I took our moms to a Cubs game for Mother's Day and Gordon took me to the Bears game with tickets he got from work. But again, I'm more interested in where to obtain the peanuts and how best to get the hot dog guy's attention, than actually watching the game.

I think my lack of sports enthusiasm stems from my non-competitive nature. I just want everyone to have fun! If I can rig  a relay race when coaching so every team is a winner and can feel that success, I'm a happy coach!

The other day I was playing the game Clue, with some more competitive friends. I accidentally messed up a turn and essentially changed the outcome of the game by accident. We almost stopped playing the game we put an hour into because of this. Me though? Uhh... Just take another go? Skip me? It's the same? Free kick? Don't care.

I'm not sure how I feel about my own nonchalant demeanor. Competition can be healthy and encourage athletes to rise above ther own perceived abilities. For me through, the importance of competition lies in the comrardery of a team, working together to achieve a common goal and heightened work ethic.

How this translates into a classroom? Competition can get students excited and engaged but emphasizing the benefits of the process and not the outcome is my goal. If I can manage it, everyone that is a team player is a winner in Miss Sindewald's Room!