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Drew Auteri

Mrs. Cramer

Comp Pd. 5

7 December 2018

Losing is the Key to Success

If you have ever played a sport, or know anyone who has, you have heard about

participation trophies and quite possibly their effects. Participation trophies have numerous

negative effects and they reach out to things which are farther out than sports. These are not

preparing kids for the real world and are shaping the youth of our country into entitled people.

Kids today have difficulty dealing with hard things, such as failure, and the results could be

caused by participation trophies and the constant recognition of kids for doing minimal work.

Youth today need to have the experiences of losing and humility, but these trophies are

destroyers of both qualities. Participation trophies ruin qualities that are gained in sports and all

trophies’ effects have been weakened, because of this, participation trophies should no longer be

given in youth sports.

Participation trophies create feelings of entitlement and narcissism within kids who

receive too many unearned trophies. Promising rewards can result in an effect where kids will

only do work for promise of rewards (Kleiber 262). As a result, kids feel that they deserve and

need a trophy for doing anything. This can be things as simple taking out the garbage or

completing homework. The trophies are creating a sense of false satisfaction for things that

should be done without question like cleaning up after cooking or getting a report done for an

occupation. They also make kids feel like they are more talented or special than others which
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causes laziness, lack of motivation, and entitlement. This makes it hard for people to work

together and it puts into the minds of youth that talent is better than hard work which is simply

not true. Participation trophies do not teach kids the value of losing and the life lessons that

sports have to offer. Participation trophies degrade values found in sports and can drive

participants away because their parents know the negative effects that these trophies have. This

is not how it used to be before participation trophies. Sports used to be only positive and taught

teamwork, social skills, and physical fitness along with sports knowledge and coordination.

These trophies have caused controversy and brought negatives to sports like laziness, arrogance,

and over confidence. Participation trophies have ruined sports as far as their necessary life

lessons and qualities that were always present for the kids.

Another negative effect is that, participation trophies degrade feelings and effects that are

gained by winning actual rewards1. Non-stop recognition can cause kids to underachieve.

Always being recognized can cause indifference and lack of motivation amongst young athletes.

Ashley Merryman states, “A larger cultural message: to succeed, you just have to show up.”

(Merryman 2)2. This tells kids that to make the most money or get the best job, they just have to

sign up and not put in the effort. The bar for results is set lower because kids have poor work

ethics as a direct result of them always being shown that success comes no matter what effort is

put in (Wallace 1). This can also show in schools as more kids have low work ethics resulting in

low grades, drop outs, and struggles in college because of bad habits developed in elementary

and middle schools that are direct result of participation trophies. The effects are also seen in the

work place when people take long to do their work or are late to appointments set up by

1
Zeugma- a literary term for using one word to modify two other words, in two different ways.
2
Logos- appeal to logic by using facts, figures, or reason, such as common sense.
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customers. It is simply due to laziness caused by these trophies. Overall, participation trophies

send messages of effortless rewarding that is applied to the real world as kids grow up, but is not

the case as those kids experience work and careers.

Many argue that participation trophies boost kids’ self esteem and their confidence.

However, as important as that may be, kids need to know how to lose so that they know that not

everything will go their way and they need to learn how to cope in a healthy manner3. Bryce

Harper, MLB player for the Washington Nationals, knows what it takes to get to the top and he

feels participation trophies ruin all of the qualities found in losing and getting back up again4.

For parents who sign their young kids up for various sports, they like the qualities and memories

that sports create along with the physical activity. Participation trophies take this away and also

bring out poor qualities like high egos. On a personal level, I have received participation

trophies and when I received it I did not feel like my confidence was higher, instead I was angry

that I did not put in enough effort to get first place. I have also been on the winning end and

received a first place medal, such as the D9 championship earlier in my Junior year, and it made

me angry that the other teams still got medals that were like ours because they just participated

even if they did not try. Therefore, participation trophies boosting kids’ self-esteem, while

important, is obsolete compared to the values that losing can give. In addition, there are other

ways to boost self-esteem such as getting good grades on tests and doing well on projects and

other extracurricular activities.

Other supporters of participation trophies argue that participation trophies are important

for recognizing effort. While recognizing effort is important there are other ways to do it such as

3
Formal Diction- The use of formal words in formal situations, to establish credibility and attract listeners.
4
Ethos- Using professionals or statistics to establish credibility.
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giving one special trophy to every team to give to the athlete that puts in the most work. This

would still push kids to work hard and makes them push further than they would originally if

they only got a participation trophy that everyone else got. An example would be the Most

Valuable Player Award that is given to the player who has done the most for the team. Also,

effort is rewarded as the kids who put in the most effort play more and help their team succeed as

opposed to those that only do the bare minimum. Along with getting playing time, athletes who

put in the most effort will grow and improve for the years to come. To restate, there are other

ways to reward kids’ efforts by using trophies that have only positive effects, unlike participation

trophies and kids who put in the most effort will find rewards with in the team and the sport

itself..

In conclusion, free rewards ruin values that are obtained in sports and all positive effects

that real rewards have. Participation trophies cause feelings of entitlement and overconfidence

with in kids because they feel that anything they do is great and should be praised. The trophies

also diminish effects of actually receiving accomplished trophies because everyone else gets the

same trophy as the first-place winner. Think about how the real world would run if everyone got

paid and no work was done, that reality could happen sooner than later if participation trophies

remain an overwhelming part of sports.

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Works Cited

Merryman, Ashley. “Losing is Good for You.” New York Times 23 Sept. 2013 2. Web. 19 Sept.
2018

Kleiber, Douglas A. and Roberts, Glyn G. ”The Effects of Sport Experience in the Development
of Social Character: An Exploratory Investigation.” Abstract. Journal of Sport
Psychology (1981): 3. Web. 20 Sept. 2018.

Wallace, Kelly. “Does Sports Participation Deserve a Trophy? Let the Parental Debate Began!”
CNN.com. CNN news, 18 August 2015. Web. 20 Sept. 2018