Next Game
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Brooke Andrus is Head Coach Bart Andrus’ daughter and is in Mississauga interning with the Argonauts’ communications department during 2009 training camp. She is a photojournalism major and a track athlete at the University of Montana.
I hate to lose. Sometimes my competitive nature gets the better of me. I take any and every form of competition way too seriously – from thumb wars to finding Waldo. For the most part, though, my desire to win has served me well. I have my dad to thank for that.
I was brought up in a family where winning was important. If we (and by we, I mean whatever team my dad happened to be coaching) didn’t win, he wouldn’t have a job anymore, and that meant that my family would have to move somewhere else. So my brother and I thought it was silly when we played in sports leagues that refused to keep score because ‘it put too much pressure on kids and emphasized winning instead of having fun’. Don’t get me (or my dad) started about giving out ribbons for 14th place.
Throughout both mine and my dad’s sports careers, what I have learned is that winning is fun, and it’s also the reason we compete. When I was in high school, I remember signing up for a community 5K one summer. I told my dad that I was just going to run for fun and that I didn’t really care how I did.
“Well, then what’s the point of racing?” he asked. “You can go out for a three-mile fun run any time you want. But why would you sign up for a race unless you’re running to win?” He had me on that one. So I ran to win, and I did.
On Wednesday night, I watched the Argos lose their first pre-season game against the Montreal Alouettes. Even though the Argos had a few shining moments, it wasn’t enough to make up for the team’s mistakes. No one was more disappointed about the loss than my dad; he hates to lose.
I know there are a lot of Argos fans out there who hate to lose too. I know that the positives that came out of Wednesday’s game do not outweigh the fact that we finished 13 points behind Montreal. I also know that every loss is a great learning opportunity, and as I watched Thursday’s ‘correction practice,’ I was happy to see the players taking full advantage of their chance to become a better football team.