At the age of four, I started my first sport, football. From the first practice, I was just hooked on the new responsibility of showing up to practice every Tuesday and a game every Saturday for my new team Blue Valley Recreation. I had so much fun with my future kindergarten friends! As I grew up, I played more and more sports like softball and dance classes, and I would do anything to go out and play soccer or play with my family. From the age of four until today, my love for sports and exercise has only multiplied. Besides the love of the game, I think maybe I've gained something more from playing sports all these years. Although I wasn't entirely sure what or why I had benefited from playing sports for so long, I knew I had certain attributes that many other non-athletes didn't. not. Thinking further, I considered my current personality; outgoing and sociable, relatively intelligent with a willingness to work and learn, respectful and obedient to superiors, and rarely ill, with a strong, healthy body and the drive to keep it that way by exercising and refusing to drink or take drugs. Could I have developed these qualities and others by being an athlete from a young age? Could something as simple as a game I enjoy playing improve my life? I had to find out. Jim Thompson, author of Positive Coaching, explained: “It is precisely because of the symbolic meaning inherent in youth sports and the pressures that children choose, or are forced, to face on the playing field or at the gym. gymnasium, that an incredible Feder 2 opportunity presents itself to teach. positive lessons about life” (Cox 2). In fact, different researches, studies and surveys suggest that it is true that...... middle of article ......vrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010487202&source =gale&srcprod =OVRC&userGroupName=kans77634&version=1.0>."Organized sports for children and tweens." Pediatrics 107.6 (2001): 1459-462. American Academy of Pediatrics. AAP Publications, 2001. Web. February 15, 2010. .Steven A. Riess "Sports" The Oxford Companion to American History. Paul S. Boyer, ed. Oxford University Press 2001. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Our Lady of Sion. February 16, 2010 “The Benefits of Exercise and Sports Participation for Children.” EDietStar. Internet. February 15. 2010. .