Sophie Fossum: What Sports Teach Us About Life, Teamwork, and Effort

Softball has been a part of my life for so long that it’s difficult to imagine who I would be without it. I’ve struggled with it at times, had my ups and downs, wins and losses, like any athlete. But the skills I’ve earned from trial and error have prepared me for the future.

Softball being a team sport means that working with others is unavoidable; it’s a fact of the game. Every player is, of course, responsible for their own positions: the pitcher for throwing strikes and getting outs at the plate, the shortstop for fielding the ground balls and for covering bases, etc. But what I’ve learned that will help me in my future is that your role as a teammate doesn’t end at your position; it includes much more. Remembering to cover a base or communicate with your team about which base to throw to, those are beyond your position but still vital to the sport. Even seemingly simple things, such as handing someone their bat or helmet, cheering for them every pitch, these things lift up the spirit of the team, and that leads to success. These same lessons apply in all groups, small or large, and even society as a whole, which is why they will be valuable to me in my future job and in my family life.

Despite the importance of teamwork, I would say that the most significant thing that my years of softball have taught me is that winning and losing do not mean everything. The score is a representation of how one team played against the other, not how one team played compared to itself, or how an individual on a team performed. As an individual, I’ve struggled with where the blame lies, with worries of what more could have been done, what I could have done. I have never been the fastest or the best hitter or the best pitcher or the best whatever I have tried to be, but in the end, I’ve realized that the effort I put in is what matters to me. I work hard to prove that I can work hard, even if it doesn’t earn me the top spot, or even if my work isn’t acknowledged by anyone. To me, life is about working hard for yourself, even if no one else notices. That is the most significant thing that I have learned.