Voices of the Nation: Balancing Sportsmanship and the Drive to Win

How do you combine sportsmanship and the competitive drive to win?

Izzy Van Veldhuizen
Lincoln High School
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Everyone wants to win, but the players who are successful combine the drive to win with good sportsmanship. I play as hard as I can and give everything I have on and off the court. I also push others to be the best they can be. This drive to win still needs to be within the lines of good sportsmanship, which means I respect the game, rules and especially the other players. Win or lose, I always shake hands in the end and show the good sportsmanship that I have learned from playing the game all these years.

Joe Charpentier
Hudson High School
Hudson, Ohio

My coaches have always preached that as a team we “celebrate with each other” after making a big play, and that you compete and play for those moments with your teammates celebrating success. As an athlete, you have to realize that as much as you might not like your opponent or the town that he/she is from, everyone on the field shares a common goal to win and to represent their school and community. When we taunt the other team and show bad sportsmanship, we may intend to hurt our opponents; instead we embarrass ourselves, our team and our community.

Louise McCulloch
New Trier High School
Winnetka, Illinois

All athletics require that the participants be both competitive and “good sports.” Success requires that, in the heat of the competitive moment, student-athletes must focus on team victory. However, throughout any contest, the best athletes appreciate the efforts of their opponents and know that, in part, their opposition’s best efforts helped drive the winner to victory. The New Trier girls golf team represents the best in both competitive spirit and sportsmanship. While we, of course, want to win and score better than the other players, it is our responsibility to encourage and support everyone regardless of their actual results.

Sarah Hazard and
Gabby Provenzano
Hunterdon Central Regional High School
Flemington, New Jersey

As student-athletes, it can be difficult to combine our competitive drive to win with sportsmanship. However, we find ourselves doing it subconsciously in the intense environment we are accustomed to playing in. Sportsmanship goes hand in hand with composure. As soccer players, we often face situations where parents are screaming, or other players are getting rowdy. We could stoop to the level of these people, but this would only affect us negatively when trying to win. If we stay calm and respectful and focus on ourselves, our drive to win is not interfered with. 