Recently it’s become fashionable to criticize “participation trophies.” According to some, they’re to blame for nothing less than weakening the resolve of entire generations, putting the very foundations of our country at risk. 

To which I say, really?

 Personally, I see nothing wrong with handing out trophies, ribbons or, heck, little gilded lollipops at the end of a season. Now, I’m not talking about older kids—high school or even youth sports’ upper levels. But letting a six-, seven- or eight-year-old know their participation meant something…? I have zero problem with that. I freely admit though that five seasons coaching Little League does not make me an expert, so I asked a few sporting-type folks I know and respect. 

I started with Matt Goodell. For years, he was president of Roseville West Little League. Good coach, too. In his mind, not only do participation trophies not give a kid any sense of entitlement long-term—they don’t even do it short-term.

“The participation trophy has ZERO impact on how a season goes [or] the athletic ability and growth of the individual …ZERO,” he said. “Kids know who was the best, the least, the natural…they don’t need a coach or hardware to tell them that.” 

What they do instead, he suggests, is acknowledge a child’s commitment to something bigger than themselves for one of the first times in their lives. 

Football coach Casey Taylor, recently of powerhouse Del Oro but now at Capital Christian, doesn’t think participation trophies lend a sense of entitlement either. Instead, he’s more concerned with pay-to-play competitive (or “comp”) sports teams giving many kids—and parents—unrealistic ideas of a young athlete’s ability.

A youngster, he says, “might be on a comp team, but that doesn’t mean they’re good.” At the youth level, he’d like to see more emphasis put on learning—and simply learning to enjoy—a game, and he thinks parents and youth coaches “get too caught up in wins and losses. It’s gotta be more about the game, the journey.” Sports, he says, are not only a chance to “learn life lessons like self-discipline and working with others,” but they’re also something to simply enjoy well into adult life at a recreational level.  

A slightly different take on participation trophies comes from Jason Harper, founder of the high school sports motivational program Character Combine. He’s mostly not a fan. “At entry-level, I can understand,” he says, comparing them to medals earned for completing a marathon. But even then, he thinks it’s important that the “why” be explained, otherwise, it “creates an idea that as long as you show up, you’ll be rewarded, and that’s not how life really is. You have to show up and compete or you’re not going to play…or be employed.”

And I don’t disagree…for older kids. But at the youngest levels, kids participate for different reasons: some because they want to, some because they think they might want to, and quite a few because their parents want them to. Regardless, that’s as it should be—you won’t know unless you try, right? And to me, try is a word that doesn’t get enough credit. Can you remember the last time you tried something new? Something really outside your comfort zone? Me either. Now, think about a first, second or third grader. For many of them, that’s exactly what they’re doing. That sort of effort should be rewarded, because at that age how they did doesn’t matter. That they did, does. There’s your “why.”

But there’s one other reason that didn’t occur to me until I contacted Matt Goodell. 

“It’s funny you asked about that,” he said in an initial email exchange. “My 15-year-old just yesterday pulled out his trophies—participation to individual accolades—from a stored container and placed as many on his window sill that he could fit. I asked him why he did it, and he said ‘I don’t know.’ Typical teenager response, right?” But, he added, “as we sat there staring at them, I realized the appreciation he has for every one of them.” Each, Goodell realized, “tells a story, a memory, a moment in time…” 

And that’s a pretty decent reason, too.  

 Catch Tom on the Pat and Tom Morning Show on New Country 105.1, email him at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter @kncitom.

Article by Tom Mailey  //  Illustrated By David Norby