Volume 94, Issue 3 - My High School Journalism

Nov. 5, 2010
Sports sure do teach you a lot. Whether it’s learning
how to tackle, hit a ball, or perfect a stroke, the coaches
in your certain sport drill the fundamentals into your
head until mastery is achieved.
But as time passes your form will become sloppy,
techniques will eventually be forgotten, and the only
lessons that remain are ones that deal with life.
With each grueling practice you learn how to persevere.
You may not like everything your coach makes
you do, but you shut your mouth and do it. Why? You
want to get better at that stroke or shot.
With every obstacle, be it a game or an injury, etc, you
gain confidence in yourself and in teammates who help
you overcome those obstacles.
You could sit and think for hours of life skills gained
because of sports, but, to me there is one lesson that
sticks out. You have to care.
My sport is football, and my high school career ended
on Wednesday, October 27, 2010 and on this day is
when I learned the key to life (as I know it). The more
you care about something, the less you care.
Let me explain.
The more feelings you have for something or someone, the less you will
care about every negative that goes along with that certain something or
someone.
Case and point. I care a great deal about the sport of football, but even
more about my football teammates. I didn’t want to let them down this
year so I worked my butt off in the off-season.
Every day I would lift weights after school until exhaustion (thanks to
Coach Timmermann). Yes, I would be sore as heck the next day, but I
drug myself back into the weight room every day, knowing that if I took
even one day off I’d be letting my teammates down.
The winter passed but my work did not. I continued to lift during the
spring and summer and went to camps to work on my technique.
Little Dodger, Fort Dodge Senior High
www.littledodger.net
Opinion 6
Keep your tongue in your own mouth
For the past four years, it has become obvious to me
that the rule “keep your hands and feet to yourself”
hasn’t fully sunk into the minds of the adolescents at
Fort Dodge Senior High. Well I’m here to remind you
of that concept.
From now on, I do not want to see touching, kissing,
hugging, holding hands, putting your tongue down
someone else’s throat and basically having sex in the
halls. It is disgusting, repulsive and unbearable.
If you have the urge to put your arm around your
boyfriend or girlfriend, fight it. You can’t bear to be
separated from your significant other? Too bad. For
eight hours five days a week, I hope you can control
yourself. If you cannot, switch schools immediately.
I can name you most of the couples who chose to
abid by the rules and show affection. If I would ask
the school who are the most outrageous couples, I bet
each student would describe the same students. Now
Cortney Wolter
I am not going to name those people, but I hope you
know who you are and are deciding to change your
disturbing ways.
A class period is less than an hour and a half and it is pathetic that couples
will stand outside their classroom’s doorway making-out excessively
or share long, awkward hugs. You’re going to text them throughout the
class anyways and see them soon enough. Leave your romantic happenings
in the bedroom. A school is no place for them.
I have had to scream at the top of my lungs at couples with their arms
around each other and their lips glued together. I really don’t care at this
point if you are offended. I really do not feel bad if I hurt your feelings.
I have seen enough of these disturbing public displays of affection. You
shouldn’t have to be told to control your sexual urges.
This is a place for learning; not for sex. If I wanted to
see that, I would watch a porno.
For the record, most of you couples will not last past
college or even high school. Most of you have mistaken
lust for love. I know that you think you are “in love” and
“life is heart-breaking without your significant other,”
but I promise you life goes on when you are not all over
each other.
These relationships in high school are to prepare you
for marriage in the future.
This idea goes hand-in-hand with respect. I believe
that if you chose to make-out with your girlfriend or
boyfriend in the hallways, you are not respecting the
people around you.
If someone takes offense to my raging comments,
Editor why should it matter? They are not showing respect to
me, themselves or their boyfriend or girlfriend. Why
should I show them any?
I don’t make-out with my boyfriend in the halls and
do not want to either. We barely even walk together; I feel as if that would
be disrrespectful to him and myself if we acted this way around school. I
respect everyone in this school who also shows me respect in return. You
stop making-out, I’ll stop being rude.
I know this opinion is cliché but someone needs to step up and say
something. The school needs to make a policy for public displays of affection.
All teachers and students need to step up and stop this nonsense. It
has gotten out of hand. I’m tired of being one of the few to stand up and
say something.
Let’s stop showing PDA in the hallways and come to school for learning.
Sports teach us more about life than games
Colin Hendricks
Then practice started. At that point all of the work I
did shifted from individual effort into a collective team
effort. Enough of the team cared about each other at
the beginning of the season to not care about all of the
sweat filled days of endless practice and conditioning.
Sure, we complained now and again, but when Coach
Miller told us to do another sprint we did it.
Feelings grew stronger and over the course of the year
we, as a team, grew numb to the sacrifices we had to
make to be a good team. We didn’t always like what we
had to give up but we did it, because we couldn’t stand
seeing our teammates in pain.
As you all know, the varsity football team had a great
year. We finished with a record of 8-2 and were the outright
CIML Iowa conference champions. I truly believe the
reason we had so much success was being the amount of
love for one another we had. We weren’t always the fastest
or the strongest but when we set foot out on the field
one thing was for sure: we cared more for each other
than any other team.
So, even though I’m not happy the way the season ended,
i’m glad the pain of defeat lead me to this discovery. I think this is going
to make me a better person in the future, which really is the point of high
school athletics.
The wins and losses won’t be remembered (and if they are, chances are
they won’t be remembered accurately) but the life lessons will stick with
you.
I learned that the key to success, for me anyway, is the ability to care. The
more I care, the easier it is to make sacrifices for that cause. Whenever I start
to complain in the future I will be able to reflect back and see just how much
I care about the problem. If I don’t care about it, I won’t fret, but if I do care,
I’ll give whatever it takes to achieve my goal.
But don’t take my word for it, go out and try a sport (or challenging activity)
and see what life lessons you learn.
Sports Editor