As a parent who has been involved in sports in Venango County for several years, I would like to offer maybe a bit of encouragement to parents in our Oil City School District.I have heard many times over how great competitor schools are at this or that sport. Well do you think that is because they have better athletes in their district?
I think that is absolutely NOT the case. Oil City has some of the finest athletes I have ever watched. There are a couple of problems, in my opinion, that could be addressed to further the success rate of our teams that have little to do with athletic ability.
I have been involved with sports on different levels, middle school to high school, all grade levels. One common problem is the lack of dedication to the sports. Kids decide they just don't want to go to practice because they are feeling less than ambitious, or maybe they just feel like hanging out with friends instead.
I am here to tell you that as parents, we need to enforce the commitments our children (and we along with them) make to sports activities when they sign up. We need to remind them that they have to go to practice or they just don't get to do whatever else it is they do instead.
The success or failure of our school's sports teams is directly related to the students' commitment. I challenge anyone to say differently.
