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Have you ever thought of the many benefits of playing team sports? Or how being on a sports team can contribute to stronger academics? How about how all of this could potentially benefit your child?
Not only are sports a great way to get your kids involved in daily activity, but they also provide a sense of camaraderie among each other. Encouraging your children to get involved in sports allows them to build life-long skills that can be used in the classroom and in their adult life, too.
We sat down with the John-Michael Gareau, Director of Athletics, at Aberdeen Hall Preparatory School, to get a little more insight into the benefits of playing on a team sport and why parents should get their children involved in extracurricular activities.
Form a sense of community
Playing in school sports is a fantastic way to build school spirit and get to know your peers.
“Joining in with the student body and being excited about being at school and part of the community is one of the many benefits of playing a team sport. We love for kids to be in school sports just so they have that sense of community.”
Build life-long skills
When playing team sports, kids learn how to communicate with one another and they develop social skills that they will take with them for the rest of their life.
“From a life-long learning perspective, I really feel kids learn a lot of character traits about respect and how to commit and how to show integrity, those kinds of fantastic things you want to teach children, like life-long skills.”
Create memories and lasting friendships
The triumphs and defeats of sporting season stay with you forever. Kids will eventually grow up, but they will always remember the relationships they created on their sports team.
“Memories are always a huge thing for me when I build the program. I want everything to be focused around fun and I want kids to leave and have fantastic memories. I love when a grade 12 student comes back and they tell us how much they miss it. It sounds like we have done a great job of captivating the kids and making them life-long active people.”
Practice goal setting
It’s important to teach kids how to set goals from an early age. Working hard will lead to great success not only in team sports but in future situations such as employment.
“Whether it is an individual sport or a team sport, you really have to learn how to set goals and how to break them down to be successful. You set goals in the hopes to achieve them, but when those goals don't go right we help to coach kids on how to re-evaluate and reset, and how to dig in when things don’t go your way. This teaches perseverance, which I think is a great skill to learn at a young age.”
Learn respect
In team sports, kids learn to respect not only each other but other authoritative figures, such as coaches and referees.
“Learning, friendships and relationships and also how to work with people you may not necessarily consider your friend, that's part of being involved in sports. It’s how you deal with it all, different characters that conflict with your ideas but you still have to work together, and I think that reflects on the field. We are all in situations where we do not love everyone who we are with but we are respectful, it’s how you deal with those situations in life and move forward.”
Break barriers
One of the most important barriers children should overcome is fear. Playing on team sports can be intimidating, but that intimidation will eventually turn to confidence and teach them how to deal with adversity.
“Whenever we have a new student I always like to approach them and ask what their hobbies and interests are. I ask if they have ever considered trying new things such as sports, and at Aberdeen Hall, we like to provide an opportunity for kids to try new things and be part of something they may not normally be a part of.”
Build character
Participating in team sports gives children the opportunity to understand both winning and losing, and learning how to be a team player.
“There are positive and negative situations that happen when playing sports. When you have the positive it’s all great, they learn how to collaborate, they have great team spirit and perseverance, but when things are negative you actually have to work with those kids on dealing with those situations. I think that's the component where they build character, they really have to reflect on the negative side of things and then react and respond.”
Encourage time management
Kids who play on team sports have to find the right balance between academics and extracurricular activities. Through sports, they learn the importance of time management.
“At Aberdeen Hall, kids have academic responsibilities and that comes first and foremost. They learn how to manage their time and that reflects in their academics. It’s a really big crossover of the goal setting and perseverance, and the effort they put in generally reflects on what they’re doing on the team as well.”
Mr. Gareau and the staff at Aberdeen Hall educate their students on the importance of being involved in team sports. They teach them that playing sports not only improves their overall health, but it’s a safe place to have fun and create lasting memories.
What’s your favourite thing about playing team sports? You can learn more about the Junior and Senior athletics programmes offered at Aberdeen Hall and the philosophy of their athletics department here.
Aberdeen Hall is a non-profit, co-educational and non-denominational independent university prep school offering classes from Preschool to Grade 12. Aberdeen Hall fosters academic excellence in a progressive school environment which is safe and caring. Our school in Kelowna offers a wide range of extra-curricular activities and supports a strong sense of community. For more information, visit www.aberdeenhall.com.
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