Sports are valuable for kids to play

Riptides 12 U team wins Districts in 2017

This past weekend, my daughter played six games of softball and four of the games were played in one day. Yes, softball is in full season. Both of my girls play softball and they are on two teams each. One is recreation softball and the other is an extreme team, which is a travel ball team. It is quite a commitment. I know a lot of families who are on travel teams travel all over the US. We are fortunate our travel team plays within a few hours radius from home.

Randi and Graci started out playing tennis when younger.

My two daughters’ have been playing sports since they were 4 and 5 years old. The first sport they wanted to play was tennis. I think they started out with tennis because their cousins played tennis. The next sport was soccer, then T-ball, baseball and it eventually lead to softball.

Being in sports has helped my girls in so many ways. They learn how to win and to lose. They learn how to play as a team and as an individual. They learn how work for a goal. They also learn camaraderie and sportsmanship. Another benefit is they are exercising and in today's world of electronics it's important to get them some physical activity.

Since my girls have been playing softball for the past four years, it's amazing to see how their skills have developed over the years.

My husband and I always try to encourage out kids.  Sometimes they get upset if they strike out, don’t get a hit or make a bad play. When we go to baseball games or watch on television our favorite teams the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs, we can show the girls even the professionals strike out and don’t get hits every time.  We tell them even their favorite players make errors, but they don’t let it get them down and get right back in the game.

I know from my own experience that when I was playing sports and going to school, I didn’t have time to do much else. I played soccer, basketball and softball. I wasn’t good enough to go to college on a scholarship, but I still enjoyed playing.

I think it was even more important for kids to play sports in middle and high school because those are the years that kids seem to get into trouble, if they don’t have anything to do. When you are involved in sports you don’t have time to be bored and get into trouble. The other good thing is you have to keep up your grades to play sports. Most kids like playing sports, so they get good grades.

Parents try to help your kids find a sport they like to do, whether it’s a team sport or an individual sport. It can make a big difference in your child’s life and who knows they may even end up receiving a scholarship for college.

Randi and Graci at a softball game.