Sports are one of the most important parts of a young child’s life. Not only are they healthy for you, but it helps build hobbies, communication skills, teamwork skills, and probably most importantly, friends.

Growing up with two brothers was great, I always had someone to play with or just to talk to, but everything started to change once my older brothers went to different schools than me and started making friends outside of the neighborhood. But I was already involved in sports and this was a great chance to make my own friends with kids my own age.

Playing basketball was great it was fun, I was good at it, and the kids that were on my team were fun and cool. It was only a matter of time before I was inviting kids over to my house to hangout, play basketball, and soon thereafter, I made one of my closest friends that I still have today.

My friend and I were in the same grade, and since we became friends over ten years ago, we still get together on college breaks and even sometimes during the semester. Going through every school year with a person that is always there and is a great friend made my middle school and high school years amazing. We always had fun together hanging out with our bigger groups of friends, playing on the school basketball team together and cheering each other on in different sports that we played besides basketball.

On our last home game of the season, it was great to be called out as one of the teams senior captains along with my best friend. We stood at center court, being cheered by the crowd and just knowing that we made it this far as a team and we would always help each other out no matter what we needed.

Now this may be a story of friendship but it really is a story about how sports were able to change my life. Without getting involved in basketball, I would never had become friends with my best friend to this day. I would have had a tougher time in school and making it through boring and restless times in my life. Sports are more than letting kids release some energy, they are about letting them get out there and meet new people. Let them get out of the house and away from the family, playing sports can result in making friends that last a life time.