Maturity critical in our sports

By Nick Pinkerton

This is a very emotional time for hockey anywhere on the planet.

The Winter Olympics in Vancouver are upon us now, marking the 30th anniversary of the 1980 "Miracle on Ice," and the NHL recently selected its participating teams to open the 2010-2011 season in Europe.

However, to our dismay, last week brought us the death of Brendan Burke, son of Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke. Brendan, a 21 year-old who saw plenty of years on the ice, died from injuries sustained in a car accident.

He had recently come out to his parents, admitting his sexual orientation and contributing to the global debate surrounding homosexuality and gender ambiguity in sports.

This is a sensitive issue across the sports spectrum, but for hockey, it's just one of many.

Today, I want to highlight one of these many issues -- violence resulting from poor sportsmanship -- and how two opponents reached out to each other to solve their dispute.

Two weekends ago, the Santa Clara ice hockey team faced off against UC San Diego. The teams were engaged in a contest that saw a plethora of cheap-shots and bad-mouthing, which is typical in collegiate hockey.

However, an unusual moment occurred in which a hit on a UCSD player resulted in him being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.

While waiting for the ambulance, the Santa Clara men took a knee on the ice and, as a team, prayed for the UCSD player.

Another UCSD player, Gerritt Davis, was touched by Santa Clara's actions and wrote this in an e-mail to the team.

"I would like to say that it extremely classy of you guys to be praying for our injured player...I want you guys to be proud of yourselves for the way you conducted yourselves out there."

Davis admitted that his behavior during the game was no different from that of his teammates. He said that he could not apologize on behalf of his team but did so for his own unacceptable behavior.

We all hear that sports is "just a game," but we don't always understand the full meaning of this.

Sports is just a game, but only when people handle sports and the life surrounding it with maturity.

With maturity comes moments that we want to remember sports by like the "Miracle on Ice."

But maturity also arises out of resolving something we fear to confront.

It took a great deal of maturity for Brendan Burke to come out to his parents, as did it for Davis and our hockey team to understand the truth behind sportsmanship.