Motivation doesn’t have to be negative

As a former participating parent of Bangor Youth Football, and a friend of several current players parents, I feel it may be time to make the practice of disparaging the players’ friends as “sissies” because they play soccer instead of football, a thing of the past. There are many ways to motivate our youth to excel without telling them their peers are not up to their standards of toughness and childhood manliness.

I have heard the arguments that the program has the best intentions in mind, and it builds character for later development. Every youth sport led by caring and dedicated people can say that. I coach Little League baseball every spring (eight years), and I have never thought that kids who play spring soccer should be made fun of because they don’t play baseball (and if I did feel some sick need to make fun of them, I certainly wouldn’t do it in front of all their peers and friends).

Maybe it’s time for Bangor Youth Football to step back, make it a league about the kids and not the coaches, and maybe enrollment would increase to the point where the players wouldn’t have to think less of their friends in order to be accepted by the adults.

Andrew H. White

Bangor

Olympics at their core remain human drama

Well, isn’t Mr. Thorne just a little ray of sunshine!

He’s apparently unable to find a single positive thing about the Beijing Olympics. Whether or not China should have been awarded the 2008 Games is a moot point now, and to belabor that issue is a waste of time and column space. Yes, China is fraught with human rights issues, and Beijing apparently has more smog than Los Angeles ever thought of producing. And yes, the Games are filled with crass commercialism, though this is nothing new. Even the original Games in Greece brought adulation and awards to the athletes.

But the Games are still human drama in real time, as well as a chance to learn a little about other peoples and cultures, discover sports foreign to us, find humor and pathos and courage in the side stories, cheer for the home team, as every nation does, and cheer for others as well whose efforts and character are brought to our attention. The Games, regardless of where they are held, are a smorgasbord of color, tension and human emotion, better than any television reality show.

The coverage of the Games is not always sterling, enamored of crisis and controversy as the media seem to be and prone to hyperbole but, on the whole, watching the Games is an enjoyable experience, and Gary Thorne can go sit on a tack.

Kate Lalone

Bridgewater

Note to readers: The BDN reserves the right to edit submissions for libel, taste, clarity, and to fit available space. Letters should include a signature, full name, address, and daytime phone number. Letters may be mailed to: P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402, or e-mailed to: bdnsports@bangordailynews.net