Funny that as the sports seasons start, the biggest thing on my mind is how to foster unity between the schools. Unity and sports-induced school rivalries can often seem like opposites. But I don’t think it’s all that crazy to believe that, if we play it just right, school sports can unify us more than divide us.
Unity in Sports through Healthy Competition
Of course there are many ways to let sports divide us when competition goes sour. Healthy competition, though, can be a great way to teach us to get along even when we’re on different sides. And even rivals can be unified.
That’s because unity is not the absence of competition. As a matter of fact, competition can help us to build relationships with each other.
Healthy competition can be very good for teams, families and businesses alike. And if we master this kind of competition early, we are better equipped to compete and better our communities later in life. In other words kids who play sports against each other might make really good business rivals or even co-workers in the future.
Unified for a Cause
If we can compete without hating each other, we can actually accomplish some really great things.
The Gold and Pink games are a great example of our communities coming together for a cause. Proceeds from admissions, raffles, and auctions at the games all go to individuals and families who are fighting cancer.
Piute’s most recent Pink game raised money for Diana Higgins from Piute and Danny Brinkerhoff from Bryce Valley. The Pink game allowed these communities to come together and rally around these individuals in a kind of unity you don’t see in many other places.
Unity Outside of Sports
But it’s not just the games/meets themselves that create unity; it’s the feeling of comradery that these teams build at practice and in their friendships.
McKynlee Cottam called this the Moqui-Ohana (or family) as part of the Escalante theme. She pointed out that this meant not just comradery within her school, but also within the entire community of Escalante. I’d like to extend her logic to the area of Garfield, Piute and Wayne Counties.
There is so much that sports do for these three counties. Some of the strongest feelings of unity I’ve felt in our community came while socializing after games — congratulating each other on a good game, running into cheerleaders and fans from the other teams, and mingling with family and friends. This unity within our community is a side effect of working as a team on the court.
How to Stop Sports from Causing Division
So maybe I’m not so crazy after all.
It’s not too hard to look around and see how healthy competition, coming together for a cause, and creating unity in areas of our lives outside of sports are shaping our community into something better.
Just think of how much we could accomplish if we fostered unity at every practice, every game, every work project. What if we came together on issues where we are on the same side? Now that would be a win.
– by Abbie Call
Feature image caption: Panguitch volleyball blocks a hit from Milford at a game in September 2022. Courtesy Hailee Eyre.
Abbie Call – Cannonville/Kirksville, Missouri
Abbie Call is a journalist and editor at The Byway. She graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in editing and publishing from Brigham Young University. Her favorite topics to write about include anything local, Utah’s megadrought, and mental health and meaning in life. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hanging out with family, quilting and hiking with the dog she’s getting soon — fingers crossed.
Find Abbie on Threads @abbieb.call.