Playing at Life

Sports are on my mind tonight. Truthfully, sports are never very far from my mind. But there have been a couple of recent news stories that are playing in my mind.

One was this in today's SJ Mercury. It says that Asians have become the majority population in Milpitas and Cupertino. I take it Milpitas has been Asian majority for awhile, but the rapidly growing Indian population has now put Cupertino in that category. Frankly, I think that is great. It means that those communities will have a wider range of cultures to enhance the quality of life. But it made me wonder how the changing demographics has changed or will continue to change sports that are played there.

Already high school football is not the all-consuming passion that it once was. I went to several Watsonville High football games this year because my son-in-law, Tim, was a JV coach. And, while the fans for the varsity games were enthusiastic, it paled in comparison to the mania I remember from the Friday nights of my youth.

So now that there is a greater diversity of people in Milpitas and Cupertino will we see a greater diversity in their prep sports? Is table tennis coming? How about high school cricket? And if we see new games will we not see some old sports? And what about facilities? Will new games fit the old school?

I guess the new games are value neutral -- one sport holds about the same benefit to the community as another. But I guess I will be sad if cricket replaces baseball.

The other story that caught my attention is this about a shooting in the bleachers of a girls soccer game in King City. As a former high school athletic director, this story sent shivers down my spine.

Following the shootings, King City High School officials proposed to move the games to the afternoon rather than the normally scheduled early evening. I'm guessing that was a reaction to other schools having qualms about how safe it is to play games in King City. Experience tells me that every AD at schools that had road games at KC received phone calls from parents demanding that the games be cancelled or moved to their own schools. But the parents of the King City girls asked that the start times not be changed. They pointed out that they work and would not be able to see their girls play if they started earlier.

I think school made the right decision. It is easy to give into our fears and make knee-jerk reactions. But this is also one of those "teachable moments" when people are ready to listen and learn. Maybe this can be used to build community and not let the gangsters force good people to retreat from something that is important.

I think the old claims of sports teaching life lessons are generally overblown. But this may be a time when we all win when kids play a game.