In a generation heavily influenced by views, clicks, and viral videos, people’s feeds and newspapers are chalk full of trash talk and boasting.
You see players – of all sports – jawing at one another, trying to get under the skin of their opponents. Whether it’s for a competitive advantage, or, maybe, for their own social media publicity, we’ll rarely know.
Unfortunately, it trickles down sometimes – just look at the recent video of a third-grade AAU basketball team trash talking and boasting in front of the other team. Yes, third grade.
But what you saw during Tuesday’s Lynn All-City Track Meet was the complete, utter, and polar opposite.
You have all five Lynn high schools competing against their rivals and – even after a photo-finish race between two student-athletes – you see them go right up and hug each other afterwards.
The track and field programs of Lynn are tight-knit, rallying around each other day in and day out. That was on display from Tuesday’s first event, to its last.
“It’s one of the best parts of this meet,” St. Mary’s coach Tristan Smith said.
During warmups, you saw Lynn English athletes conversing with Lynn Classical athletes, KIPP athletes stretching with St. Mary’s athletes, and so forth.
“Some of these athletes grew up together, but attend different schools. Even though we share the track throughout the season, it’s great that at the final meet of the year, they can reconnect with each other,” Lynn Tech coach John Hogan said.
Tuesday was the final regular season meet for all five Lynn schools, and a special day for seniors leaving Manning Field for the last time.
High school sports should be about fierce competition, but also, respect. On Tuesday, there was no boasting, no trash talk, but rather, respect.
