At the age of four I started my first sport, football. From the first practice, I was simply hooked on the new responsibility of showing up to practice every Tuesday and a game every Saturday for my new Blue Valley rec team. I had so much fun with my future kindergarten classmates! Growing up, I played more and more sports like softball and dance lessons, and I would do anything to go out and play soccer or tag with my family. From the time I was four years old until today, my love for sports and exercise has only multiplied. Aside from the love of the game, I feel like I may have gained something more from playing sports all these years. Even though I wasn't entirely sure what or why I benefited from playing sports for so long, I knew I had some attributes that many other non-athletes didn't have. As I reflected further, I considered my current persona; 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 willpower to keep it that way by exercising and refusing to partake in drinking or drugs . Could I have developed these and other attributes by being an athlete from an early age? Could something as simple as a game I love to play impact my life for the better? I had to find out. Jim Thompson, author of Positive Coaching, explains: “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 in the gym, that an incredible opportunity arises for Feder 2 to teach. positive lessons about life” (Cox 2). In fact, various research, studies and surveys suggest that it is true that... half of the document......vrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010487202&source=gale&srcprod =OVRC&userGroupName=kans77634&version=1.0 >."Organized sport for children and pre-adolescents." 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 U.S. History. Paul S. Boyer, ed. Oxford University Press 2001. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Notre Dame of Zion. February 16, 2010 "The Benefits of Exercise and Sports Participation for Children." EDietStar. Network. February 15. 2010. .