Maybe it’s just me. Perhaps this happens in every town where there is a high school and high school sports teams.

Helicopter parents aside, high school sports can make the political arena in Washington look like pikers.

I have a character flaw. I take people at face value. For a very long time, I operated on WYSIWYG.

Okay I was naive. No matter where you are in this world, there is always someone willing to step over you to forward their agenda and to hell with yours.

There was a salient moment when my sons were eight and on a basketball team. I actually watched one of their teammates try and knee another child in the groin. THEY WERE EIGHT AND IT WAS A SATURDAY MORNING GAME! A GAME!

We continued to emphasize fun and sportsmanship but clearly other people had other ideas for their eight year olds. Winning was everything.

Flash forward to now. One of my sons is six foot four. He loves basketball despite the fact that Michael Jordan retired and it has been years since we recovering Chicagoans relished the glory of seven rings. Nonetheless, he (who would sleep twenty three hours a day if he could), sucked it up for his entire high school career when two-a-day practices were mandatory, as was summer basketball camp.

Even with all his efforts, my husband and I spent most of every season watching him support his teammates and warm the bench.  There were others in the same position.  Each season, the coach would have a parent meeting.  To stave off any psychosis, he would announce that he would be happy to talk about anything EXCEPT playing time.

The coach also played his varsity squad on the junior varsity games.  And my son sat and sat and sat, along with three of his teammates.  Finally, one of the moms in the same situation sent the devil be damned and called a meeting.  In that meeting, she talked about rewarding effort.  What is wrong with letting your bench warmers have some play time if we are down by twenty points with three minutes left?  Her son, God Bless, said, “I’ll give up my time if you play the other three.”  We both cried when I heard that.  Integrity trumps court time every time.

This is their senior year and final season.  No difference.  Except that we got to witness how much their classmates went wild when these four fine men were introduced on senior night.  Add to that fact that my son had to offer me his arm and you have a golden moment.

But better than that, THESE FOUR GOT PLAY TIME!  We were down by 20.  The crowd went wild!  But that is not the best moment.  Not by a yard.

After the game was over, my son was lifted by his brother and a good friend and carried off on their shoulders (no easy task).

Ah, the magic of life.