Is winning at a young age more imporant? A retort...

Let's start with a few background facts. 1) "That's It" and I are former classmates. 2) I consider "That's It" to be one of my best friends. 3) "That's It" is the single most competitive person I've ever come into contact with. 4) I consider myself to be the 2nd most competitive person on that same list. 5) I've had to bite my tongue numerous times when competing with "That's It," or risk saying something I would regret. Keep those in mind as I "argue" with the point "That's It" brought up in his most recent post. The origination of this point comes from a time when "That's It" and I were playing a game of Madden against one another. "That's It" is good at Madden. At the time, I had never played. "That's It" used his best team, while I chose a team I thought would be decent. It wasn't. Or, at the least, "That's It" ensured that it wasn't good enough. In the first quarter, I threw 3 INT's. He led, 28-0 (or so). I was getting frustrated, and it was showing. After one run where I managed (not skill, but pure luck) to get into scoring position, I got up to use the restroom while the replays were going on the game. When I came back, to my surprise, it was now 1st and 30, because "That's It" didn't hit start for me. Instead, he allowed the play clock to run out over and over again, with the included 5 yard penalty, all while laughing hysterically. (As an update / reminder: it was 35-0 at this point and not yet halftime; I had never played before, and "That's It" was using his best team). After that, I quit. I felt it was poor sportsmanship to play that way, that it was cheap, especially against a friend who had never played again, and it wasn't something I wanted to experience again. In short, I was angry. "That's It," on the other hand, said that it wasn't his responsibility to hit start for me, that it was my job to keep him from scoring, and that it wasn't his fault that he could score at will. While all of those are true, it begs the question: is winning more important? Or is there a point where sportsmanship should take precedence? "That's It" brings up the idea that in life, there are always winners and losers. Always. This is a valid point. There is always a group who is "cool" as you grow up, and there is always a group of "losers." One may argue that teaching kids this well-known fact is important as they age, so they aren't quite so devastated when they aren't picked for kickball over recess. Yet there is also the point that sports, at least at a young age, should be about learning the game, having fun, and growing a sense of camaraderie amongst your peers. Beating the bejesus out of a 5-year old isn't proving anything, only that the losing 5-year old isn't as coordinated as the winning one. "That's It" has a point in that at some point during a child's upbringing, children understand that they are better than another child. Similarly, many parents see that their child is either much better or much worse than the next, and there comes a time when the two groups should split. But unless they are old enough to understand that baseball is still a game, or that football won't be their career, should winning ever become the end-all in a child's game? Not to say that coaches shouldn't get in the teenager's face, to remind him that a blown assignment can cost the team a game, but is winning 100-0 in basketball proving anything? Should a child, or a teenager for that matter, ever be in the position to face that prospect? My point is this: in life, surely there are winners a losers. In sports, there are also winners and losers. But in sports, winning is often about one's athletic ability, about one's ability to play a game. In life, those two rarely come into play. So why should we put kids in the position to pull themselves up from a beatdown, purely for the lesson that life has winners and losers? Won't they learn that elsewhere? As for "That's It" and myself: I kicked his ass in ping pong not long after that. We still don't play Madden, but at least I had some sort of bragging rights after having my ass handed to me in that stupid game.