#4- My glamorous life as a Sport hero in High School

Photo: http://www.martinjdougherty.co.uk/fencing.html

Growing up in South Africa, as an Afrikaner,  there was just one measure of a man's worth: How good are you at rugby? If you are a talented star, you would automatically be rated as a man's man, a born leader, hot stuff. You had it made socially.

Enter me on stage left, stumbling and falling flat on my face in front of everybody. This is my confession, finally, it must come out so that I can go on with my life. This burden must be unloaded,  And this is my confession, forgive me father for I have sinned grieviously... I suck at rugby!  I had the distinct honor since entering primary school: I usually was the slowest runner of a 100 meters in my age group. Or second last, My 100 meter times would be favourably compared with other's 800 meter times, and still they would win. That automatically disqualified me from the backline. But I was also one of the smallest guys around, and not that strong, so there goes my glory in the scrum.  When we played at breaks in schooltime, everybody lined up. And then the two best players started picking their teams for playing touch rugby. And every single time I was left standing alone- no one wanted me in their team. So from a young age I chose rather to go to the library during breaks, find an interesting book or two, and read till the bell rang again.

As I entered Secondary School, a new world opened up for me.  Growing up in Natal, suddenly there were more types of Sport available than in the other provinces. We had a lady teacher who was a Springbok fencer. And that sounded romantic: being a swordfighter like the heroes in the story books.  I was hooked.  And I really enjoyed fencing. The history of the sport. The difference between the foil, the epee, and the sabre. The balance needed, one arm behind you, feet never crossing... Although being slow and not so strong, I did have good hand-eye coordination.  My hands could move quickly, I instinctively were good at the parry and reposte. And at age 14 and 15 I really enjoyed the competition, sometimes even fencing at competition level with university students, and sometimes, just sometimes, beating one of them! This was such a good experience in my life!

And then, I made one of my most stupid decisions in my life. I left the sport. At age 16 it really got to me that I had such a hard time making friends. I did not experience being acceptable in my class, and thought if I just started playing rugby, I would be part of a team, Maybe, just maybe, I would make it into the coveted social groups. And so started my mostly undistinguished career as hooker or prop for the school's Third team, just because there was not enough boys to make up a fourth team. There was this one day when I had to play for the second team because their one prop was MIA. And that was the summit of my rugby career, There I stayed, often wondering about my father, who has played in his school's firsr team, and who was a good gymnast.

There was one other light in my sporting career. Somebody gave me a horse. A real life horse,  The steel corporation where my father worked, had an Equestrian farm outside the town. And I got to keep this horse there. The sport discipline both me and my horse were suited for, were gymkhana (other countries calls it Tentpegging). Another military sport concerning swords and lances. Also in this sport I really found great joy. This I could do to the best of my ability. It was so good for me!  But finishing school, going off to university, I had to sell my horse, It would be more than 10 years before I rode again, and the first time, a one-eyed Arabian mare had a scare, sidestepped for a running rabbit, and I went flying.  At school a horse had a hard time throwing me- and now I really went ballistic- fell hard, and tore a muscle in my back- there is still a knot in that muscle another 10 years later on.

The sad fact is: there is not one photo of me fencing in existence.  I will find a gymhana photo and update- here is an example- not me...

http://paisleycurtain.blogspot.com/2011/06/tent-pegging.html

 So this was me at high school: never being able to perform in team sports made me quite a loner. I did better in sports involving weapons like swords and lances, and never did any good in any ball related sport.  The sports I did take part in was usually related to the English speaking community. Being Afrikaans, that made me feel an outsider to the English community, and not being good in rugby made me feel an outsider to the Afrikaans community.  That was why I did so many kilometres alone on my motorcycles, dear High school friends at Schoolfeed.  I always felt alone at school, never completely fitting in anywhere.  That was why I spent so much time reading in the school's bib.

Sometimes it really gets to me- not being able to be a good sportsman myself, Maybe that is why I am trying so hard to reach 21 consecutive medals in the Pick 'n Pay Argus Cycle Tour, I am now standing on 18! Not fast, but completed every one since 1995.   I am not a good athlete. But I really love the concept of sport. I am a big follower of rugby, cricket, tennis, cycling, Moto GP, F1, and most Olympic Sports- I regularly use sport metaphors in my sermons as a pastor.  I appreciate good Sportmanship- the sweat, guts and determination needed to reach the goal.

I am not a good player, but an excellent supporter.