Jack Bise

“This I Believe” Speech

Sports. To most people a sport is just something that a person does for fun
or for exercise. However I believe that there is something else playing sports can
do for a person. I didn’t understand this until I was in 6th grade. Before I was in
middle school sports were just a hobby, something to do in my free time. But
once I got to middle school and started playing basketball I started to finally
understand why I was playing and what I was playing for.
Playing sports for your school are completely different than playing sports
outside of school. Once I started my 6th grade basketball season I began to
understand that this was going to take a lot more responsibility than my past
years of sports. At first I was playing like I always have. I was having fun doing
what I love with my friends.
All was good and normal until I realized one of my teammates wasn’t
playing in the game that day. At first I didn’t know why, but soon I learned that it
was because of grades and eligibility. Before that moment I had no idea how
important everything outside of just playing the sport was. That was the first time
playing any sport I had I learned about responsibility and how to act outside of
playing.
Fast forward to my first season of a high school sport. I thought I had
known and understood why I was playing the sport I was. But I started to think. Is
this really something that I enjoy and something I’m doing for myself? As soon as
I started questioning myself answers started to flow in. I started to understand
that I wasn’t just playing for fun or because I loved the sport, but I was playing to
learn about life and how to attack it after it attacks you. I began to learn that my
coaches weren’t just talking about playing football but living life. I was
understanding how important it was to learn from my actions and the things they
cause. The responsibility of being a student athlete.
Responsibility is not an easy thing to learn or teach. Some would say that it
is simply something a person obtains or comes across. But I would have to say
that true responsibility takes years of proper teaching and the willingness to learn
it. I would say that playing sports has taught me some of the best and most
important lessons about not only myself but life as well.
I wouldn’t say that playing a sport is the only way to learn about
responsibility, I would just say that playing sports has helped me start to
understand the learning process of it better than anything else in my life. Being in
school for 10 years has taught some responsibility but I don’t think that I would
be the same person mentally without all the years I’ve played sports. That is why
I believe that playing sports can help people learn and understand responsibility.