Sports & Boy Scouts

[Eagle Foot]

Great answers form everyone. Sports is important, Scouting is important. It is a valuable lesson to learn on how to balance several things that you would really like to do. Sports is seasonal at least for each session. Scouting is year-round. They both involve learning how to be a team player. It is possible to do both with a little planning. The boy will learn how to do is best. Sometimes failing form overcommitment even doing your best is worth doing. It is better to find this out as a youth when no real harm is likely to happen than to have this happen as an adult where it could effect your family and loved ones. Where there is a chance for real problems that could effect you for some time.

 

Scouting teaches us values. In a good way having a conflict such as sprots vs. scouting, it brings me back to focus to the boy...keeping them moving in the movement. Thanks for a great thread.

[dan]

But there is no balance!

Why is it okay to miss scouts but not a sports pratice? Baseball teams here pratice 3 to 4 times a week and have at least one game on the weekend. Soccer is not much different.

If it where equal, I would not have a problem with it.

 

Every boy deserves to be a Scout; Not every boy deserves to be a Scout.

[SR540Beaver]

dan,

 

It is slowly beginning to sink in for me, even though my natural (or maybe learned) tendency is to resist it. Scouting is different from sports. They are both goal oriented, they both teach values. But professional sports (the example our amateur children gets) is about results and not values. Scouting is about values and the results they bring. My son learned many of the values that scouts teaches on the ball field. He learned about team work, sportsmanship, keeping mentally and physically fit, self discipline, striving for his personal best, etc. But they were byproducts. The goal was to beat the pants off of the other team and take the trophy home. Scouting is about teaching the values thru the methods in order to make the best possible man out of the boy for his family and community.....not for glory, fame and fortune. I may be clear as mud here. I admit there is a fine line. The difference I think is that the majority of sports is team oriented and the absence of one team mate impacts all of the other players on the team and the team as a whole. While it takes a team to win, one player slacking off can affect the teams performance in the contest to win the gold. While scouting has an element of team work about it, the emphasis is on the individual and the man they become thru the methods. Yes, you need your fellow scouts to have the best experience, but the absence of one scout does not mean the troop might lose the "game". It means that the absent boy is missing out the most, not the rest of the scouts. A sports team is all trying to get to the same place at the same time together. A scout works at his own pace in a looser framwork of a team. A coach expects his outfielder to catch the ball 99% of the time and will bench him if he doesn't. He is allowing the other team to score. A troop may want and encourage a boy to reach Eagle, but it is up to that boy to choose if he wants to get there. He is not costing his troop anything as they are not competing against another "team". He is only costing himself. All scouting can do is provide the program, support and values to go for the gold, but it can't make him reach for it. Remember, as the boys get older, he has to try out for a sports team and perform well enough to make the cut. If his performance drops, he can still be cut. Scouting isn't going to make him try out or cut him if he doesn't "live up" to expectations. Scouting is voluntary and many sports teams are not. No balance? We are comparing apples to oranges. A boy can balance his scouting with his sports, but the two programs are two different animals and will never be balanced in their expectations of the boys time. That is what I have to keep reminding myself of. Sports is no practice, no play. Scouting is no involvement, no advancement. Hopefully the values taught by scouts will help the boy make wise, mature choices of where his time will be better spent without the threats his coach uses to enforce his involvement.

[scottsuny]

Well this is a very good topic, Sports vs Scouts. I can relate to both sides of this as both an adult leader, football coach, jock and scouter. There is no way you can make a kid chose between scouts and sports, for one thing in the scout oath, a scouts is suppost to be physically strong, what better way to do this then by playing a sport. Also just because a scout chooses to play sports and miss a couple meetings doesnt mean he will not be a great scout. As for my self I played 2 years of football, wrestled for 6 years, was in marching band for 5 years, and was a memeber of a fire company for 4 years(they had meetings same night as scouts). While doing all that i earned the rank of eagle scout, earned numerous merit badges, and became an outstanding leader. so let kids be kids and let them be exposed to a wide amount of things, cause we if you make them chose you may lose the next babe ruth or maybe robert baden-powell

[red feather]

To make a young man choose between scouting and sports is, IMHO, wrong.

 

That said, explanation, if a young man chooses sports without scouting he will in all possibility grow up to a fine example from what he has learned. But without the scouting experience. Provide the opportunity to the young man to enjoy both and then he will have the best of both worlds and have the background that scouting can provide.

 

Have had several scouts over the years that did both. One in particular is going to a military academy soon and scouting is/was a major part of his choice.

 

Scouting in todays enviroment has to be flexible.

 

yis

[eagle90]

Sports and Scouts can co-exist if we as leaders understand that BOTH are important in the life of the boys. Our troop is seeing 5 seniors graduate next week, four of whom are Eagles, all five have been active in sports or band, but have given our troop 7 years of leadership and loyalty. We just understand that on football Saturdays the band members will not be camping with us. And in spring, our numbers will be down due to baseball. LIVE WITH IT GUYS. Never force them to chose, as you may not like the choice they make. I would take a troop of 30 boys just like the five we are losing every day of the week!