Letter to the editor: Sports success requires character

OK, first things first: Congratulations to the Penn State and Canon McMillan High School (girls) wrestling teams and coaching staff for making national history and for helping to develop players with more character.

Now, for my story. I have been writing letters to editors and doing three-minute citizen speaks on health, environment, learning and play best practices for the past few years and getting nowhere fast. Then, in the last few months, a few wrestling programs would demonstrate all these things in a matter of a few tournaments and make history at the same time.

Yes, the Penn State wrestling program “had fun,” according to head coach Cael Sanderson, and “we learn a lot of really valuable things out of our sport, but first and foremost is character.”

Also, the Canon McMillan girls wrestling program made history in Pennsylvania with the help of Wrestling With Virtue, which, according to their head coach Brian Krenzelak, “was born of out of a perceived need for character education in the lives of our young athletes so that as they develop their athletic abilities, they also develop their character as individuals.”

So, I guess the secret to success is speaking to those with character and about character, in all sports and games, in order to win in life.

Also, this seems to be more self-evident once girls got into the wrestling game, ’cause girls obviously got all kinds of character and are players, too.

Dennis Smiddle

Canonsburg