Friday, November 12, 2021: For the Love of the Game
By Manfredi Mazza
Sport is a fundamental passion for all people, of all ages, but in particular for young people. For them, as it engages the body and mind, and creates relationships with others. However, there are people who pride themselves on not being interested in any physical activity; others, however, enjoy spending as many hours of their day at the gym or running on a track at the park, or dabbling in organized team sports. I’m not talking here not about professional sport in particular but about a culture of sport and the way it can affect students’ lives like those at CCI. Sport is that physical activity that develops both strong bodies and a variety of skills through competitive activity or just for fun. Sport, in addition to developing skill through practice, is part of the culture at CCI in which it manifests itself and is enjoyed by many students: think of football (or soccer in North America), tennis, basketball and many other disciplines that excites and energizes millions of people. Among team sports, we here in Italy are used to the almost absolute dictatorship of football. Some would like to demonize this wonderful sport as another sign of the moral decay of society, but try to understand what kind of influence it can have on young people. Beyond a number of incidents of violence in stadiums, where many young people vent anger at opposing teams (no one would deny, a form of free speech), I believe that in Italy the religious transformation of this sport has two faces: on the one hand it encourages so many young people to learn how to play the game competitively. Then, on the other hand, it creates disinterest in other sports that have equally important values to promote. Football can monopolize our aspirations for a healthy lifestyle. Sport therefore educates us to take care of our bodies, to develop positive relationships with our teammates, to focus on the attainment of a goal, to spend our time in a different way. It is therefore an essential part of our lives and one that we have been encouraged to pursue at school. Sports are also beautiful. There is a grace in playing by the rules, in forcing one’s body to make increasingly refined gestures. This is why CCI gives so much importance to sport everyday, to help us physically and mentally, and to help us understand together the love for sports.