EudoraNews.com

There has been so much news in the newspapers (including our own Eudora News) as well as on the radio lately, that I have chosen to turn most of it off and just listen to my favorite soothing CD, (piano with Steve Jarrett) on my car stereo. Sometimes you have to do that.

I was pleased to see that idea portrayed in the cartoon last week in the Eudora News with a family riding bikes together and the caption reads, "An Autumn time out from terrorists, bird flu and gas prices." Sometimes we need to be reminded to live in the moment and this cartoon did well to encourage just that.

Some of the news has been hopeful, particularly in our community where we see the city council has voted to support the proposed downtown grant we are seeking with $293,000 from city funds "that would only be spent should the transportation enhancement grant be awarded." Low interest loans from Kaw Valley Bank are also part of the package to help business owners revitalize Main Street.

We also see that the new organization Awareness Coalition of Eudora has been rapidly and efficiently organized and is seeking cooperation with the Eudora City Council -- as I take it more as a complementary role than a confrontational one.

This also appears to be a positive when concerned citizens become motivated and are watchdogs for the rest of the community, which so often struggles along, concerned with just getting through the work day and the kids' homework at night.

While the adults are working toward an improved community, our student athletes are burning up the football field as well as the volleyball court and the wide open spaces where cross country takes place. This past week finds us 8--1 in football, and I hope that when you are reading this, it is with the knowledge that Eudora has beaten Louisburg and advanced in the playoffs.

We would like to forget our tussle with our old rival to the south -- Baldwin. We had faith in a win with our Matthew and Mark (Abel) but we played without our Luke, who was felled with a broken collarbone in the Spring Hill game.

Keeping Luke company during the Baldwin game was Max Alvarez, hobbling on crutches having also met with a serious injury off the football field.

The above-mentioned were but a few members of a team who worked so hard to once again create such a successful year.

Whatever the team's fate in the playoffs, Coach Gregg Webb can be proud of the entire team for a well-fought year of teamwork and talent that once again brought such energy and entertainment to this community.

Our amazing girls volleyball team also finished with an impressive year, making it back to the state finals in Salina. Kudos to them as well as to the cross country team with standouts Brittney Graff, Megan Ballock and Cody Burns who continue to challenge themselves in a grueling sport. What an interesting touch Coach Paul Boone gave to the boys cross country team by issuing each participant a black shirt and telling them that since they "are not getting any press. No one knows about you. These are your cloaks of invisibility. We're going to sneak up on some people" and they did just that as he adds, "We qualified three people, and that's a giant step."

While athletics rule the news these days, it was a treat to honor the band at last week's game as well as the senior students who excelled in other areas of school activities.

All of this news of our athletic teams fits neatly with the column written by Paul Thevarajoo last week concerning the importance of winning versus losing -- what it teaches our youth and how they handle both sides of the coin.

Although I agree with most of what Paul had to say, I admit to being one of those people who likes to see the younger children playing more for the fun of it than the competition. There is time enough for that drive to compete as they move into the upper grades.

It is also well to remind our kids that life is not fair and to be thankful for a healthy body and mind as we witness those who sit on the sidelines in wheelchairs or those -- not athletically inclined -- who are the last to be chosen at dodge ball or those left behind in academics as they struggle with their studies even in this No-Child-Left-Behind atmosphere.

There is a part of all of us that celebrates winning, but it is also true that losing is not shameful and that at some time we all experience failure. With this in mind, I still subscribe to my theory, which is really not original, of Sarah's Circle where we gather in a circle so the weak are supported by the strong rather than climbing Jacob's ladder where only the whole and the healthy can compete.

So I ask, what is the matter with fun and what's the matter with just enjoying the sport for the fun of it -- especially in the early years where childhood is so brief and the innocence of play is lost very quickly in the press of competition?

No comments

Commenting is turned off for this story.