Blogs
View Blogs


Why Hand Out Trophies Just For Having Fun?
Created: Monday, February 8, 2010, 10:40 PM    Modified: Monday, February 8, 2010, 10:40 PM
Originally published by Dave Kehmeier in Silicon Valley Community Newspapers.
I counted my son’s soccer trophies the other day. Buried under a thick layer of dust and boyhood detritus on his bookshelf were 23 trophies in various shapes and sizes. Looking at all that hardware, you’d think we’re raising the next Pelé.
And those are just the soccer trophies. He’s got t-ball, basketball, and flag football trophies too. Counting the box full of his oldest ones packed away in the garage somewhere, I figure he’s won about as many sports trophies as my entire generation combined.
All of the trophies are made of cheap plastic with fake woodgrain or marble bases and metallic paint flaking off sports figurines displaying impossibly correct throwing, passing, or shooting form. They look impressive, but as soon as you pick one up, you get the feeling you’d better put it back down gently before something breaks off. Basically, the trophies are a bunch of a word we try not to use around my son much.
Sooner or later, that bunch of “word” is going to end up in a landfill. If I don’t do it first, the woman he marries most certainly will. All those trophies take up a lot of space and besides, there’s nothing more pathetic than a grown man desperately clinging to the dubious accomplishments of his youth. Wait – did I just write that out loud?
The sad thing is, it’s not just my son. According to the Internet (which I have no reason to question when it serves my purposes), an estimated 48 million 5 to 17-year-olds played organized youth sports in the U.S in 1995. There’s probably at least a couple more million playing now. If we give 50 million kids, say, 2 trophies a year and the trophies are 15 inches tall on average, they'd nearly reach around the world at the equator. The last thing the earth needs from us right now is an equatorial ring of trophy junk every year. What a waste. Someone should get a red card for this.
And they’re not just junk, they’re pointless junk. Most of my son’s trophies are participation trophies. Those are just for showing up even if your best play of the season was taking a ball in the face off a penalty kick. Show up, and you get a trophy. Show up once in a while, have a crummy attitude, play lousy, and you still get a trophy. What’s so special about that? The truth is, after about half a dozen trophies, they all start to lose any meaningful significance.
It turns out, kids play sports for fun. In fact, in a survey of the top 10 reasons why kids play sports, they listed having fun as their number one reason. I found this out on the Internet too. It’s definitely true for my son, although the most fun for him is finding a stick during practice and chasing his teammates around the field with it.
My guess is that 99.99% of kids would still play sports even if we didn’t hand out any trophies. They’d probably have just as much fun, too. Sure, they’d cry foul at first because they’re used to us rewarding them for any effort regardless of outcome. But they’d get over it eventually. In the meantime, there are always the post-game snacks to sugar them up and keep them happy.
So even though banning youth sports trophies would be good for the environment and the kids really don’t need them, I doubt it will happen; the trophy industry is too entrenched. But I’m still hoping I can get my son to part with his collection before it becomes a future marital issue.
I’m going to keep my 2007 “Coach of the Year” plaque, though. It’s made of real wood and I’ll probably never get another one. Especially if the players on my team read this.
With thanks to Dave Kehmeier and Silicon Valley Community Newspapers for allowing us to post this article.
Please login to add comments.

The Importance of Recycling
Created: Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 09:19 AM    Modified: Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 09:19 AM

Green Tips for Valentine’s Day
Created: Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 09:46 AM    Modified: Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 09:46 AM

Rethinking The Green Packaging Paradigm
Created: Monday, January 18, 2010, 09:17 PM    Modified: Monday, January 18, 2010, 09:18 PM

Under-hype About Over-Packaging?
Created: Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 11:13 AM    Modified: Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 11:13 AM

Announcing the Consumer Change iPhone App
Created: Thursday, January 7, 2010, 03:19 PM    Modified: Thursday, January 7, 2010, 03:20 PM

The New Plastic Surgery: Cutting Out Polystyrene
Created: Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 01:53 PM    Modified: Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 01:53 PM

10 Green Tips for the Holidays
Created: Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 04:52 PM    Modified: Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 05:01 PM

Enough Already In The Land of Plenty
Created: Tuesday, December 8, 2009, 07:54 PM    Modified: Tuesday, December 8, 2009, 07:54 PM

Plastic Bags – Poster Child for the Need to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Created: Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 01:43 PM    Modified: Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 08:23 PM

Enough Thermal Paper to Keep Us All Warm
Created: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 01:52 PM    Modified: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 01:52 PM

Getting Beyond the Bed Bath And Beyond Coupon
Created: Monday, November 9, 2009, 03:54 PM    Modified: Monday, November 9, 2009, 03:58 PM

The Importance of Advocacy
Created: Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 01:10 PM    Modified: Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 01:12 PM

Consumer Eco-grievances Part IV – Retail Stores
Created: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 10:00 PM    Modified: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 10:07 PM

Tackling Climate Change The Second Time Around
Created: Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 09:31 PM    Modified: Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 09:36 PM

Consumer Eco-grievances Part III – Coffee Shops
Created: Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 10:09 PM    Modified: Tuesday, October 13, 2009, 10:14 PM

Consumer Eco-grievances Part II – Airlines and Airports
Created: Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 07:12 AM    Modified: Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 07:18 AM

Top Ten Consumer Eco-grievances – Hotels. How It All Started
Created: Thursday, September 24, 2009, 08:26 PM    Modified: Thursday, September 24, 2009, 08:26 PM

Results of The Consumer Eco-grievances Survey
Created: Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 08:57 AM    Modified: Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 10:04 PM

Airlines & Airports
Created: Saturday, August 8, 2009, 11:41 AM    Modified: Saturday, August 8, 2009, 11:46 AM