But really...who's counting?

Sophia signed up for basketball this winter. Aside from making her hoops-crazy dad very happy, the benefits are numerous: regular physical activity with two hour-long practices and one game every week for six weeks, learning the fundamentals at a young age, and being introduced to the essence of sportsmanship and competition.

Uh, hold on a second for that last one.

At the last practice before their first game, Sophia's coach informed the team that per City of Fort Collins youth sports program rules, they would not be keeping score during the games. Before you go all Fox-News-The-World-is-Ending on me, keep in mind that this rule only applies to 2nd and 3rd grade games. The goals of this measure are, presumably, to encourage in the youngest cadre of prospective Lebrons and Durants the importance of skill development, sportsmanship, and having fun, not to turn us into a nation of soft-serve ice cream cones.

Behold the double-edged sword of competition and sportsmanship in youth sports in today's America.

I'm on board with focusing on skill development and getting the rules down, especially when getting on SportsCenter with windmill dunks and long-distance 3s isn't an option (yet). But isn't a large part of sports the fact that one team wins and another loses?

For the sake of this post, please disregard soccer.

In general, I'm not a fan of the "everybody-gets-a-ribbon" thing. I will say, however, having witnessed the stress created in young kids by the constant pressure to win at all costs (from coaches and parents alike), I am not in favor of promoting that ethos, either. The outcome matters, but physical and emotional health should always be the most important goals. Most people don't end up making a living at athletics so winning a game in elementary school doesn't affect our lives that much.

Basketball, being a team game, can be quite nuanced. It's not enough to learn the basics and think one will be successful in game situations. Keeping score is crucial in learning offensive and defensive strategy, and in grasping the concept of "team" first. It can take kids a long time to learn that your teammates' points are also your points, and that playing defense, sacrificing yourself to get the ball, pulling down a rebound to secure possession, or making an assist are just as important to success as hitting a long jumper. Score is important because it reflects the triumph of the team over the individual. If you don't believe me, watch highlights of the 2014 San Antonio Spurs or the 1986 Boston Celtics.

Competitive also sports teach us the ability to learn how to deal with success and failure gracefully, knowing that the outcome of a singular event should not define a life's value. When I was a young basketball player, our team was terrible and I barely played the entire season (because I, too, was terrible). I was forced to practice more. It worked because in the following four years I became a much better player and earned my way off of splinterville. Losing, on a personal and team level, drove me to do what was necessary to feel good about my game and, by extension, myself. Hard work is the only way to get better, and that's a lesson I learned as much from sports as anywhere else in life. Therein lies the key element of the zero-sum arena of competitive sports: keeping score incentivizes bettering oneself. And who doesn't want to do that?

At the 2nd and 3rd grade level, I guess it's not really a big deal. But I found it interesting that in immediate response to the coach's announcement, the team—remember, 7- and 8-year old girls wearing fluorescent shorts and pink t-shirts with flowers and cats on them—groaned uniformly and said, "Then how will we know who wins?"

Maybe the league should have asked the kids first.