Family First - Trophies

Everybody likes to win. To go out on a limb and bring home a victory. But you cant win at everything you try, unless youre talking about junior sports. Right now, booster club baseball teams around the tri-state are playing championship games and everybody is going home with a trophy. In this Family First, we ask what happens when everyone wins? Some people collect bottle caps, baseball cards, and the like. You might say Evansville super-athlete Chris Owen collects trophies. His room, a display case with a bed. And at least a hundred shiny trophies, won over two decades. Out at Hebron school, some 7 and 8 year olds in the Plaza Booster Club Baseball Championship games are about to win their first trophies. Even if their teams lose in the early rounds. Theyre getting participation trophies, feel good awards. And boy do they feel good. "My son, I got a son in t-ball. He got his trophy Saturday. Hes still carrying it around with him, you know? Showing grandparents, and hes really proud of it. Took it to daycare the next day." A generation ago, only the winning team brought home the prize, but a 1969 publication called "The Psychology of Self Esteem" changed everything. It said self esteem was the number one predictor of success and so many teachers and coaches cut anything that might damage a childs self esteem. Central High School baseball coach Jason Englebrecht says sometimes, criticism is necessary. His team finished runner up in this year sectional. A performance he was proud of, but one he says didnt warrant a tall golden honor in the school trophy case. "Trophies represent wrongly to some extent that everyones to be recognized for every achievement that they have and thats not really the way the real world works." Theres a chance that by the time these guys win as many trophies as Chris, theyll probably forget how they even won their 2008 participation trophies. And by the time they get to be as old as Chris dad, Mike, well, they might not care anymore. Coaches we talked to say participation trophies are completely acceptable for the young ones. Theres no harm, they say, in patting kids on the back for a well-played season. It may just be the encouragement they need to keep swinging and keep coming out for sports.