What ever happened to good old sportsmanship? What ever happened to playing sports for the love of the game? In light of recent events, it seems that one man and his son have lost sight of the real value of athletic competition.

Michael Croteau, a father from New Brunswick, Canada, is suing the New Brunswick Amateur Hockey Association because his son Steven didn’t win the league’s MVP award, despite being the league leader in both goals and assists.

Croteau demanded that the MVP trophy and the league’s playmaker award be taken away from the respective winners and given to his son.

Croteau is also seeking $300,000 in a suit claiming that not receiving the awards caused psychological damages to Steven, so much as to make him give up the game of hockey all together. This father’s actions are ludicrous and completely out of line. This sort of action not only detracts from the prestige of the award, it also severely insults the original winner’s season performances.

Second, when you consider that Steven was willing to give up his game, he never learned the right attitude to have toward sports. Obviously, Steven is an excellent athlete, particularly at hockey, and probably should have won the MVP award, but he didn’t. There’s more to the game than scoring the most goals or getting the most assists; it’s called character. Something else Croteau and his son failed to learn.

This unfortunate situation is just another example of people taking their kids’ sports too seriously and corrupting them with an inflated and exaggerated sense of hubris. Perhaps current young athletes can view this ridiculous case as a shining example of how not to play the game.

University Wire — Baylor University