The OSIP Foundation, Inc.
  • Home
  • About
    • About OSIP
    • Message From Founder
    • Board of Directors
    • Executives
  • Documents
  • Donate
    • Where Does My Money Go?
    • Mail Us A Check
    • PayPal
  • Contact
    • Contact Us!
    • Mailing List Sign Up
  • Calendar of Events
  • Host a Trivia Night!
  • Apparel
  • Programs
    • How You Play The Game (Podcast) >
      • Podcast Episodes
      • Submit A Story
    • OSIP Award
    • Sportsmanship Signs
    • The Strike Zone (Blog)
    • Winning the Right Way (Clinics)
    • On Sportsmanship (Book)
  • Success Stories
  • How To Request Help
  • 1st Annual Black-Tie Gala

THE STRIKE ZONE

Sometimes Sports, Sometimes Sportsmanship

Bottling Good Vibes

4/28/2023

0 Comments

 

By Katelyn Mulligan

Chief Operating Officer

How many kids start playing golf because a parent or other adult has promised to let them drive the golf cart?

I was one of them.

Fast forward a few decades and you'll see I really enjoy playing, even though I’m not very good at it.

Years ago, I discovered my pharmaceutical employer had a golf league, the competitive equivalent of company softball with recorded statistics and official bragging rights at stake.  As someone who was already playing softball for the company, I decided that adding one more activity was another way to play more rounds of golf and meet some colleagues.


I enjoyed playing in the golf league while it lasted.  Ultimately, however, my colleagues who ran the league retired, leaving nobody interested in taking the reigns.  After consultation with a different colleague, she and I decided we would reinvent the league as an informal club, complete with the same opportunities to play golf and enjoy colleague camaraderie without brackets and scoring.  (After all, I didn’t understand how the scoring worked and didn’t want to take on that responsibility!)

Two years later in the present day, our new golf club (no pun intended) is a huge success.  The number of people who have signed up skyrocketed to triple digits, far beyond the handful that kept the league alive.  We give each other words of encouragement when a nice drive is hit, and we help each other look for a ball that’s lost in the rough.  I hear no negative talk or snide comments (aside from the good-nature ribbing we naturally use).  Instead, it's a plethora of positive camaraderie amongst colleagues, all of whom are wondering, once the round is over, when they get to do it again.

Now, I never witnessed any acts of poor sportsmanship while I was in the formal company golf league; however, now that it is less formal as a club, it’s reassuring to see so many people enjoying themselves and playing.  No one seems to mind that we’re all at various skill levels; everyone knows the golf rules and playing etiquette, and that is enough.  I don’t feel any worse than I normally do if my drive hooks and goes into the woods.  It just affects my own individual score, not my team's ranking.

This poses a question regarding whether the league/club dynamic could be beneficial in other sports settings.  What if children were mandated to participate in equal parts informal recreation and a competitive setting for their sports or competitive activities?  Could this perhaps curtail acts of poor sportsmanship?  Developing a child's ability to understand when to "turn it on" for a more serious competition could influence positive change.

This template has been applied before with mixed results.  Kids who want to participate in their town's competitive summer baseball program, for example, are required to participate in the spring recreational league that correlates.  However, the same kids might feel no remorse about skipping a less important game in the spring, as opposed to a more serious game in the summer.  Further, many parents cannot understand that, regardless of the competitive level, it's just a game and no the end of the world.  Understanding the delicate balance between playing to win the competition but not at the expense of maturity and good sportsmanship is quite difficult.  If only the positive vibes could be bottled by my pharmaceutical company and distributed to everyone involved in competitive sports.
0 Comments

    Jack Furlong

    Baseball player, umpire, coach, fan; professional musician; founder, President & CEO of The OSIP Foundation, Inc.

    Archives

    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016

    Categories

    All
    Announcing
    Baseball
    Basketball
    Blog News
    Business Of Sports
    Coaching
    College Sports
    Competition
    Cycling
    Fans
    Football
    Gambling
    Golf
    High School Sports
    Hockey
    Hunting
    Officiating
    Posts From Previous Blog
    Rugby
    Soccer
    Softball
    Sportsmanship
    Sports Media
    Sports Parenting
    Sports Psychology
    Tennis
    Video Games
    Youth Sports

    RSS Feed

Ninja Number
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
    • About OSIP
    • Message From Founder
    • Board of Directors
    • Executives
  • Documents
  • Donate
    • Where Does My Money Go?
    • Mail Us A Check
    • PayPal
  • Contact
    • Contact Us!
    • Mailing List Sign Up
  • Calendar of Events
  • Host a Trivia Night!
  • Apparel
  • Programs
    • How You Play The Game (Podcast) >
      • Podcast Episodes
      • Submit A Story
    • OSIP Award
    • Sportsmanship Signs
    • The Strike Zone (Blog)
    • Winning the Right Way (Clinics)
    • On Sportsmanship (Book)
  • Success Stories
  • How To Request Help
  • 1st Annual Black-Tie Gala