I wrote about my mom’s visit in a different blog… but what I didn’t share was a moment of #victory that my mom experienced at my game.
As a victory scholar of the Sport Changes Life program our mission is to promote victory. What is #victory? Most people associate VICTORY with winning. We believe that people can achieve victory in every aspect of life. You may have seen some of my fellow scholars describe what victory means in short videos. They mentioned words like commitment, honesty, hard work, passion, sportsmanship, positivity, and so on.
As mentioned in another blog, some of my North Kildare players attended my game against the UL Huskies, when my mom was visiting. Most of the girls and their parents sat next to or around my mom during the match. The reason I say that is because there was a moment in my game where my one of the young girls made a comment to her mom, who then shared it with my mom.
In my mom’s perspective:
First, the little girls from North Kildare were so excited when Jamie entered the gym during their game. In fact half of the girls on the bench ran over to Jamie (during their game) to greet her with lots of hugs and excitement. It seem they had a celebrity in their midst. At the end of their contest, which they did not win they were still so excited to be able to stay and watch Jamie play. During warm ups the girls held up homemade signs for Jamie and gave her notes with hand drawn pictures of their training sessions with Jamie. They also hovered around me telling me how much they love her (always fun for a mom to hear). I sat next to the girls’ parents who were so nice to stay and watch the Portlaoise game. At one point in the game a player from the opposing team was knocked to the floor and Jamie went to her and helped her up. One of the North Kildare girls was so impressed with this simple act of sportsmanship. She said to her mother, “mum Jamie is everything, did you see her help that girl up”.
After my mom told me this I immediately thought of victory. This little girl was more impressed that I helped an opposing player off the floor, than winning the game. This is why I am here. This is what victory means. I am thrilled that I have this unbelievable opportunity to be able to compete but also inspire these girls at the same time. It is great that I am able to exercise and develop their basketball skills, but it is much bigger than that. As a victory scholar I am a role model for these kids, I can have such a positive impact on them, just something simple as sportsmanship.
