Quitting From a Young Persons Perspective

[wwcfoa43]

I have officiated football for 14 years now. This year my son, who is six began playing Myte which is meant for 7-8 year olds. A few weeks ago he played a night game against another city. The afternoon saw one of the most freakish snow storms for October we have ever had. It continued into the night with heavy winds, snow and very cold. My son played the game but never cried or complained too much. After the game, the coach told the players how proud he was that despite losing they never gave up or quit despite the poor conditions.

On the way home, I related a story to my son about when I officiated a Myte game where the weather was very bad. In that game, the visitors won the choice and kicked off. The home team did not move (they were shivering) and the visitors jumped on the ball. The visitors then went on offense and since the home team did not move they scored a touchdown. This was repeated on the next kick-off and another TD was scored. So after only 18 minutes of playing, the home coach told me disappointedly "Okay, we are going home now."

So I told my son that I was proud that he did not quit like the team in my story.

His response was "We were allowed to quit? I didn't know we could quit! The coach told us we were not allowed to quit!"