Rozner: Painful times for young athletes

One by one, winter sports were canceled, followed by spring and summer action as high school and college athletes received the news that their seasons were over, some never to have started.

And you had to feel for these young people who have trained so hard and cared so much, along with the dedicated coaching staffs that pour their hearts into it and spend their lives developing better players - and better people.

Especially for the seniors, the high school players with no chance to play in college, and the college athletes whose dreams end on campus with no hope for a pro career, it was a decidedly empty feeling.

Just an awful and unfair way to call it a career.

And now here we are in the fall and the pandemic continues to wreck seasons, some delayed and some canceled entirely.

Trigger warning here for those who think sports are bad for children, but sports are a wonderful part of youth, the opportunity to win and lose - to learn to win and lose - to gain confidence, to grow and to be a part of a team.

To be a part of something.

For those in individual sports, the rewards remain the same, still contributing to something bigger than themselves, playing for the colors they wear each time out.

These are good things. These are important things. These are benefits earned - not given - and lessons that can take someone a long way in the real world.

Most will never sniff a pro career, but gaining character and work ethic is crucial as they enter the workforce, where they don't hand out ribbons for punching a clock. In the real world, there is success and failure, and winning and losing.

It's part of life and it's a knowledge possessed by those who have grinded through the good and the bad of a season, the good and the bad of an athletic career and - for most of us - the good and bad of life.

When life kicks you in the sternum, the choice you face is not new if you've spent a lifetime in sports. Getting back up is a skill earned through the worst of it.

I was at a charity event not long ago and had a long conversation with a high school athlete, the daughter of a close friend. There was pain in her voice and a constant shaking of the head. So much uncertainty about her senior year.

When I mentioned something about the love of competition, missing the scoreboard and an opponent to face, she agreed and added, "That's all fun, but the real fun is winning."

It was great to hear from someone so young. Yes, competing is a big part of it, but the real fun is winning.

I played hockey for 40 years, enough scars and broken parts to remember most of those seasons, and never could I understood those who slept well when it was over and you didn't hold the trophy.

But it's not all about winning for everyone.

For some it's the socializing, it's the group, it's competing with your mates and playing for the rest of the team.

Those are all life lessons that you learn through a journey in athletics, and often you find those without the ability to see a bigger picture, who are interested in their own glory and self-promotion, are those who never competed at all.

You recognize it instantly, the insecurity and bluster.

You've seen it - whether in school or sports - incompetence masked by politics and pandering, the lazy cozying up to the right people, searching for shortcuts and attention instead of success.

The self-absorbed make everyone around them miserable, be it on a team or in an office, but when the best among you are also the hardest workers, you've got a fighting chance.

If it's all about getting credit instead of collecting wins, you've got major headaches. This is another education sport offers, something great leaders understand and do not allow.

There is so much value to learning to be good at something when you're young, to giving it all you have and to being a good teammate, the commitment to a greater cause, to put winning above your own interests, to not needing to attract attention and seek the spotlight.

That is the way it's supposed to be in all things and that is something athletes and coaches have always understood.

So forgive me for thinking sports are great for kids, that sports prepare them so well for all that comes next, and for feeling bad for the young people who are being denied that opportunity as their high school and college careers come to a close.

The athlete always finishes a shift, a game, a season. No matter what, you finish it. No matter how excruciating the pain, you finish it. At least, you try to finish it on your own terms.

Yes, it is OK to feel for these athletes, a final dream season stolen by a virus.

It's bad luck, bad timing for them that a pandemic has robbed them of a huge part of their lives. No, it is not life and death, and I need no lessons or reminders of such.

Thanks very much, anyway.

But it is nevertheless a sad moment for them. No athlete likes to be told that it's over, especially when there has been no contest.

It is no way to go out. No way at all.