What If You Found a Sport That Made You Smile All Your Life?

 What is the point in playing a sport?  Will it make you rich?
Does it guarantee a free college education? People talk about a tangible reason to participate in a sport as an end game.

The real end game may sound silly to you and to some parents, and certainly to that lacrosse coach, who brags that boys love lacrosse because they can get college scholarships and after graduation play professionally,
but there is only one real end game.

It is the same end game we all have, the one that makes life worthwhile:

The endgame is making ourselves healthy, happy people.

That is the endgame that comes with life.

I hate to sound like I'm preaching, but the yoga people have loads of men and women looking for a way to give meaning to themselves and structure and mindful,
dare I say, happiness....and health.

I believe there is a more proper end game.  Perhaps some fool themselves into believing college is an end game.
College is barely 1/4 of the way on this path.  If that is the endgame, and it foolishly seems to be, then they spend the other 3/4 of their lives finding a new end game. Don't get me wrong about college.  I highly value a broad liberal arts education.  It helps your mind prepare for where the road leads you.  It does not prepare your body.

I believe that hockey, in each of its varied forms, can be an activity that can provide life long health and well being. It is of more value as a social community, and place where we can join the better part of the world.

I have told those boys who could possibly play field hockey internationally that few other sports send national teams all over the globe.  That lacrosse coach probably doesn't care that lacrosse players might visit Canada, at best. While my friends who play ice hockey, have played in a few European countries.
My field hockey pals have traveled the globe, like rock stars, (yes, in some countries field hockey players are like rock stars): NZ, ZA, AUS, FR, IN, KOR, NL, DE, IRL,  DK, IT, BRA, ARG, CHILE, and on and on, and Canada.

The lacrosse dudes pay to go those places, as tourists.

Travel does broaden you.  It increases your brain power, fills you with new ideas and memories.  Hitting a ball with a stick doesn't necessarily do much by itself.  But if you hit that ball back and forth with other people, as you run down a field or court, when you stop and look up, you might just be amazed at how far you have come, how you are filled with well being, and maybe by the smile you still have on your face.

Indoor hockey can do this for boys.

Boys need to smile, too.