Winning With Class
| Category: | Sportsmanship |
|---|---|
| Notes: | Being a gracious winner is just as important as being a gracious loser. |
Scouts, we talk a lot about being a good loser, but tonight I want to talk about something just as important: being a good winner. Because winning is wonderful - you should be proud when you earn a victory - but how you win matters just as much as the win itself.
Have you ever seen someone win and then run around shouting 'I'm the best! You lost! In your face!'? How did that make everyone else feel? Probably not great. And honestly, even though that person won the game, they lost something more important - the respect of the people around them.
Winning with class means you celebrate without making others feel small. It means you can pump your fist and smile and feel that rush of excitement, but you also walk over to the other team and say 'Good game - you really pushed us.' It means remembering that someone else is feeling the sting of losing right now, and you don't need to make it worse.
The classiest winners do something else too: they share the credit. They thank their teammates, their coaches, and even their competitors for making them better. They know that no one wins completely alone, and they're not afraid to say so.
Next time you win - and I hope you win a lot - enjoy the moment. You earned it. But also take a second to think about how your celebration affects the people around you. The kind of winner who lifts others up, even in victory, is the kind of person everyone wants on their team. That's winning with real class.