An American in Britain

Our older daughter participated in Area Sports yesterday.  There were 8 schools total. 

It was apparent even before the sports day that our school was not very serious about this competition.  I say this because they never practiced.  In addition, there was never any formal process in selecting the participants.  We had passed one other rival school at various times and they were holding after-school practices.  On the day of the competition, a couple of the schools were out and warming up properly.  Ours stayed cool under their tents.[ad#ad-1]

Despite the disadvantages, our school did fine.  They ended up third, despite having no one making or breaking any record (every other school had at least one of those), despite several participants not knowing what they were supposed to do, dropping batons, taking off late, etc.

Of course, we were unfamiliar with the other schools, but the other parents shrugged their shoulders at the results, already anticipating the outcome and sure enough, they were correct.  The same school won for the umpteenth time.  Nevertheless, no one got angry, no one booed anybody else, cheers were given to all and to encourage the students to complete their races despite the heat.  So unlike the atmosphere at another Area Sports event I read about early on in the year.  It was nice to see that these parents were showing their kids good sportsmanship.