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Sports Best Left to SSAC · Commentary - TJ Meadows

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  Speaker 1: Average, not a star, not writing the pine either. That's
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: not a knock, just an honest description of my time
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  Speaker 1: as a high school student athlete. I wasn't the fastest,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: wasn't the one you called on in the clutch. But
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I also didn't quit and I never did anything halfway.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: And truth is, most of us live right there in
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  Speaker 1: the middle of that athletic bell curve. It was clear
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  Speaker 1: early college ball much less the pros wasn't in the cards,
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  Speaker 1: but the lessons those stuck. Persistence when effort outwete, talent, leadership,
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  Speaker 1: getting more out of others than they think they have, teamwork,
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  Speaker 1: realizing success isn't a solo act, smarts, finding an edge
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  Speaker 1: when you don't have the natural gifts, and failure, learning
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: not just how to lose, but how not to fear it.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Somewhere along the way, those lessons started to feel like
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  Speaker 1: a consolation prize instead of the prize itself, and that
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  Speaker 1: brings us to now. The legislature has handed control of
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: high school sports back to the SSAC. The governor signed
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: it and write, so the people closest to the game
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: usually know it best. They know how to regulate it.
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  Speaker 1: If a family moves, let the kid play. That's common sense.
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  Speaker 1: But transferring just to chase a better team a better
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  Speaker 1: shot at winning understandable, maybe beneficial, not always. That move
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  Speaker 1: may come at the expense of the very lessons sports
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  Speaker 1: are supposed to teach adversity, resilience, growth, because life doesn't
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  Speaker 1: ease you in. It hits, and it hits like a
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: mack truck. Indulgo's story for a moment, a true one.
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  Speaker 1: A pastor had a son gifted athlete, natural talent could
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  Speaker 1: have gone far, very far. He would shoot around for
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  Speaker 1: fun or play on a sand lot from time to time,
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  Speaker 1: but he didn't want to play organize sports. His calling
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: was different. He knew that words, not whistles, a pulpit,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: not a field. A coach once asked the father, why
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: not push him into sports. The father said, I'm not
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  Speaker 1: raising him to play ball. I'm raising him to be
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  Speaker 1: a man, and that's it. For some sports will teach
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  Speaker 1: those lessons. For others, it'll come another way. But the
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: goal was never supposed to be championships, getting to the
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  Speaker 1: next level, even scholarships. It's about raising capable, grounded, resilient adults.
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  Speaker 1: That's what's been lost in this debate, and now With
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: the SSAC back in charge, there's at least a better
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  Speaker 1: chance we'll find it again.