Good Game

If you played youth sports growing up, there is a good chance you participated in a post game high five line.

You remember the drill, each team lined up and they walked toward one another with their hands up, high fiving and saying good game to every player on the opposing team. It was a great way to promote sportsmanship.

Seeing a high five line the other day, I couldn’t help but think of one thing…germs.

Those kids just spent an hour basically rolling around in the dirt trying to catch a football. They were sweaty, filthy, and full of germs. And then we asked them to touch hands with every other dirty, germy kid.

I am all for sportsmanship, but is the high five line really the best idea? If one kid is sick, now every kid is sick. And chances are the parents will give their kid a hug after the game, so now the parents are sick.

Here are a couple of suggestions for replacing the high five line:

Facebook Five

The first thing the kids are going to do when they get home after the game is go on Facebook. I think both teams should exchange Facebook information and the kids can send every member of the other team a Facebook message that says good game with an emoticon of a hand.

Sanitizer Sportsmanship

We can still have the high five line, but all kids must be required to dunk their hands into a tub of hand sanitizer before they can enter the line. I’m not sure that youth leagues can afford tubs of Purell, but I say it’s worth it.

Cursive Camaraderie

Following the game, every player has to write good game in cursive on a thank you note and give it to each opposing player. This will encourage players to write thank you cards and it would also help them practice their cursive.

Final Thoughts

So those are my suggestions for how we can replace the post game high five. Do you have any ideas? Let me know in the comments section below. I’m going to go dunk my hands into a tub of Purell.