The value of sports is in the lessons learned, not the amount of championships won

Of course, they were discussing this at the pro level with the debate focusing on guys like Patrick Roy being known as a "winner" because of his four Stanley Cup titles and whether a guy like Dan Marino will forever be known as a loser for having never won the Super Bowl.

But the pros are what concern us at here. What concerns us is the meaning of winning a championship at any level.

Will a guy like me "forever be remembered as a winner" because I won a couple of atom hockey titles and a tournament or two? Of course not. No, in community sports, people are remembered for their contributions and attitudes rather than their win-loss record.

It all makes me think of the value of community sports in terms of teaching life lessons – from how to win with class to how to lose with dignity.

In fact, the topic brought me back to probably the worst day of my sports life and more importantly, the lessons I pulled from it.

We had the best team in all of peewee A hockey when I was in Grade 7. In fact, NDG had not only the best team in us, the Flames, but the second-best team as well in the form of our arch-rivals, the Wings. The third-best team was the HSO Sharks and it was at their hands that I first learned how to handle losing.

It seems strange that I’d even remember this more than 15 years later, but I do still have a vivid picture of how it all went down... We were winning 3-2 with under 45 seconds left in our playoff game with the Sharks – who had earlier eliminated the Wings – when one of our players accidentally iced the puck creating a faceoff in our zone. The Sharks scored right off the drop and then proceeded to net the game winner on a 3-on-2 rush less than 10 seconds later.

Frankly, it was a devastating loss.

As any kid playing today would tell you, a young athlete’s life completely revolves around his or her team. When I was 13 and on the verge of eliminating the Sharks and going on to the regional championship, well, that was my whole world and it was crushed in less than 45 seconds.

But that’s when the life-lesson aspect of minor-league sports kicked in – and it was just the first of many for me.

Similarly to the saying that it’s good for kids to experience the death of a pet at a relatively young age to learn about that part of life, losing in sports is a great way of teaching children that no matter how hard you try, you can’t always win. What’s important is to always show up again the next season to try again.

Eventually with a little good karma, hard work will always pay off. It took me another decade to do it, but I was part of a couple of championship hockey teams – two in the last four seasons, in fact – and I owe those wins to the lessons I learned by both winning and losing in minor hockey.

Will anyone remember me for that years down the line? No way. But will my teammates remember the great time we had win or lose throughout the seasons we played together? Those are the memories that never go away.

I’ll always look back on guys like Roy and Marino for providing me with great entertainment when I was growing up watching them play. Does Roy stand out as more important to me because he won championships and Marino didn’t?

I think Marino’s class both on and off the field will always shine brighter in my mind than Roy’s titles and complete lack of empathy as a person. You can always reach me at noahsidel@gmail.com