Column: Our time to influence change… Youth sports
–Change is inevitable. Some of that change comes in ways we are thankful for and others that make us yearn for a different time and experience. Growing up here on the central coast I remember a time when we had four distinct seasons, a summer when, as a child, we would spend it trying to beat the heat, a fall that came with less time to ride our bikes because the sun would set earlier, a winter (with rain!), and then a blooming spring.
Over the years we’ve slowly watched that become less of four traditional seasons to more of a blended flow of sporadic weather. It’s one of those changes that makes me yearn for a different time and experience. Growing up it just felt different. That kind of change didn’t really hit me until I started watching how my kids weren’t able to experience the joys of what four seasons could actually bring. In particular after a year of COVID-19 and the restrictions we’ve all endured, any kind of normalcy really just hits home so much harder.
Columnist Nathan Williams
In our household, we are seeing some of that normalcy return though and some of those things we hope won’t change, continue. As restrictions go away our kids are starting to get busier again with conditioning for sports. Another tried and true tradition and almost right of passage for so many! Whether it’s the splash of water as our oldest jumps into a pool for water polo, the sound of shoes squeaking on the hard floor of Gil Asa Gymnasium as our other daughter runs lines and practices “pancakes” for volleyball, the heat coming up off the tennis court for our youngest daughter as she learns how to keep the ball in play following a backhand, or the excitement in our boy’s eyes knowing that this will be the year that he puts on pads for the first time to play tackle football.
Some things change but not so much that what is so tried and true isn’t still there to experience and soak up.
Our community has always been a unique and strong community. Inevitably, as with the rest of the nation, politics has worked its way more and more into everyday conversations and that, unfortunately, is not one of those changes I care for but it’s not a change that has taken roots so much that we can’t overcome it.
Paso Robles has a foundation of small-town pride, community, and family. So many generations of families start here and stay here. Along the way we find ourselves getting involved in local events and activities that make us feel that connection and ownership. One of those has always been the pride of our youth and their endeavors. Whether that be FFA, Bearcat High School Football, or any of the growing sports (don’t hesitate to look up our Swim Paso Association and see how you can get involved and help get that pool built at the high school!) and activities, our kids, our future, are still out there picking themselves up just as we are and starting to get involved again.
So I find myself writing this as a reminder, a call for action, and in the hopes it will remind us all that while some things are often out of our hands, there is still so much we do have a say in. We can be the change for our community that we need right now and while there are so many ways to get involved, one of them is simply supporting our youth, our community athletics.
Whether you have kids of your own (share with your family and friends what’s going on in your household!), are a former athlete yourself and just enjoy watching, can be a donor/supporter, it’s all so valuable and needed right now. We had so much stripped away from us and that was a change felt no greater than by our own children. Now is the time to pick ourselves up and find ways to rebuild, reconnect, and make change for “Us”.
Nathan Williams is a longtime Paso Robles resident, husband, father, local firefighter, and member of the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees. He is an independent columnist and his opinions are his own.
