With each passing day, it seems more and more people are joining the movement thinking high school athletics should be like some recreations leagues — let everyone feel like they won and give them all trophies.

It isn’t healthy to teach a 6-year-old to be cutthroat on the gridiron, hardwood, diamond or whatever field they play on, but at the same time, we, as a society, should ask them to take it easy either.

Sports is the one of the best builders of character for boys and girls. It teaches children from different walks of life to come together as one to be successful.

Plus it is humbling. One game you are the conquering heroes and the next you are the vanquished losers.

That is the thing about life, there are winners and losers. You aren’t going to get every job you apply for, you aren’t going to get every promotion nor will you win every time you step onto the field.

This week, there was a prime example of why sports, like life, isn’t always fair as Bloomington South defeated Arlington 107-2 in a girls basketball game in Indiana.

The contest was a mismatch from the opening tip as Bloomington South had lost just once in nine games, while Arlington had its losing streak extended to 23 games.

This put Bloomington South coach Larry Winters in a bad position. If he beat Arlington like he did, he’s the bad guy. Have his team freeze the ball in the old four corners for the majority of the game, he’s the bad guy as well for not letting the girls play.

He went with what he thought was best — play Arlington like it was an equal. However, the 105-point victory was probably not the result Winters expected at the end of the night.

“I didn’t tell my girls to stop shooting because that would have been more embarrassing (to Arlington),” Winters said to the Indianapolis Star. “We were not trying to embarrass them or run up the score.”

And that’s the thing with life, there are times when someone is just better than. That doesn’t mean it will always be that way, but for that moment, that day someone is better than you.

That’s OK because it’s not always about winning, it’s what you do after you have been knocked down. That’s the true builder of character.

— Sports editor Shawn Stinson can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 14, or by email at sstinson@heartlandpublications.com.