With National Sports Day in Canada coming up on Saturday (September 29), you might notice The Valley Echo is doing our best to support sports in our country by showing off the jerseys of some of our favourite teams. Now, ironically enough, in our photo we happen to be wearing, for the most part,  NHL jerseys, and with the recent lockout of the players by the league, in retrospect, it’s probably not the best example of harmony and the intrinsic value of sport after all.

Regardless, we here at The Valley Echo feel strongly about the role organized sports play in out communities, whether it be the resident Columbia Valley Rockies invigorating the community with a winning streak or amateur sport paving the way for future Columbia Valley sports celebrities.

Sport has the power to bring even the bitterest of enemies together — perhaps no greater example of which is from the 1967 Nigerian Civil War, when the two rival factions agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire so they could watch soccer superstar Pelé play an exhibition game in Lagos.

Perhaps, more importantly, sport has the ability to forge some of the greatest friendships we may ever experience. Additionally, for our youth, sport can impart some of the greatest lessons we may ever have the opportunity to learn. The ability to make sacrifices for the good of the larger group, or learning the benefits of hard work and dedication and then seeing the tangible rewards, drill home lessons that endless of hours of schooling may never accomplish, because sport actively engages the player in every moment.

Here in the Columbia Valley, we have no shortage of events and leagues to help us learn exactly those lessons. From adult slo-pitch to youth soccer in the summer, from highschool sports like volleyball to competitive skiing in the winter, there is no shortage of ways to get out and stay active, and maybe forge some new friendships along the way. Above all, sport helps us stay healthy in mind and body, and in an age where computers and the internet seem to run every aspect of our everyday lives, sometimes it can be nice to get back to the basics.