Mediocrity at it’s “Best”

Driving to work this morning I listened to a news story about a new system being implemented in Buffalo, New York. Niagara Falls High School has done away with the naming of a valedictorian. Instead, the news story says that there are 18 students who will be receiving “valedictory honors” at graduation. The program went on with the on-air personalities debating the issue. I kind of zoned out and waited for the subject to change.

Niagara Falls valedictory graduates: (back row, from left) Ashton Lavender, Anthony Catalano, Cloe Legault, Michael Burns, Tyler Ordiway, Mike Doohaluk, James Szwedo and Samantha Kochan; (middle row) Jenna Geracitano, Lauren Girana, Meiki Wong, Alexis Schmidtke, Chandra Knotts, Erin Kelly and Kelly O’Brien; (front ) Esra Mustafa, Amanda Martin, Heather Matthews and Debra Ishman.

At the gym this afternoon I overheard a couple of guys talking about the same thing. The one guy was telling a story about how his daughter was named valedictorian of her high school and how much it meant to her.

I was never in contention for the honor of valedictorian (surprise, surprise, I was named class clown, Sandusky High School, Class of 96′ look it up), but I’m sure it meant something to whoever did win it. This whole “leveling of the playing field”, “making it fair,” really chaps my ass.

Winning Isn’t Everything, but
I like to win. I like to do well and be rewarded appropriately for my efforts. Let me give you an example. I helped coach a U-8 girls soccer team this year with my sister-in-law. My niece was on the team and it was fantastic. Now I know nothing about coaching or how to talk to 6 & 7 year old girls, so like anyone else I googled “coaching U-8 girls soccer.” Needless to say I found some good sites and started to read. The one thing that almost every site said was that children in this age group are just learning the fundamentals of the game and their application in competition. There were to be no drills, no laps, no lines (waiting to shoot at the goal), we were to set up situations were the fundamentals of the game were used in an organic way to let the girls figure the game out on their own.

OK I get it. Makes sense, if the kids figure out what works on their own they will be more comfortable using the same skills in a game situation. No problem. That’s what we do. First game comes and we lose. Second game comes, same thing. It doesn’t matter anyway though, the league doesn’t even keep score. There are no standings and everyone gets the same trophy at the end. The girls have gotten some exercise and had some fun, everyone’s happy. Wrong.

Reality Time
The adults, knowing best, decided not to keep score, but no one told the girls. They kept score. They knew who won and who lost. They celebrated every goal and when necessary dealt with defeat.

The season went on and we changed up practice a bit, the girls did have fun. Some of them turned out to be really good, and we wound up winning the last game of the season. As we congratulated the girls on their victory I noticed the look on the faces of the opposing team, a familiar look that I had to see on the faces of our girls far too often. As I heard their parents console them, it mattered. Losing mattered to them. Winning mattered to us.

Losing isn’t always a bad thing. Much can be learned from losing, like that it might be a good idea to actually coach the kids instead of letting them figure everything out on their own. Losing also makes winning mean more to those who have lost. If we have no winners and no losers, if we have no valedictorians, I fear what we will be left with is mediocrity. Mediocrity is not something to strive for.

Mediocrity
The article about the 18 kids, that spurred all of this comes from The Buffalo News, you can read it here. While you’re reading it you may want to ask your self if mediocrity is the reason that there are not 18 but 19 kids in the photo and listed in the caption.

—RJ