For some children, sports create a safe haven. Not all children live in good homes, so when they get a chance to have fun and meet new people, they will jump at the opportunity. Sports enable children to meet life-long friends and learn valuable life lessons while having a little friendly competition. Even those who are not the best players can gain from sports: “Sports has often resulted in fun for even those who never dunked a basketball or hit a home run” (Rimm). When you are faced with a devastating loss, you learn greatly from that. It teaches you to work harder next time, and when you do win, it will be so much sweeter because you know what it took to get there and how it felt to lose. Sports can also generate responsibility because your team depends on you, pushing you to make smart decisions that will positively reflect you and your team. Speaking of responsibility, in an article about sport’s influences, a specific quote stuck out to me: “It helped me to learn personal responsibility and realize that others rely on me to get a job done, and that a team requires the same effort from all members to succeed. A team is