I find it very hard to compare top winners to people that are receiving participation trophies. I believe that it has more to do with an even playing field. All things even, the best team or team member that will increase your chances of a successful game plan, should be the one's playing. You practice to get better and that practice is supposed to be represented within the course of a competition. When politics and policy start to overtake these realms, such as even being allowed to participate when clearly it's not your thing, is when it becomes something bigger than the participates and have nothing to do with it. I find it illogical ( sorry for such an open ended word) that the people making the decisions are not the participants themselves and look for "creditable sources" that have never even participated in sports within its current state of politics overtaking the sports world. What type of message do we send when we are comfortable with reason for entry such as "coaches son" or "donated x amount of dollars" or "her parents are the head of the PTA" Take out all off these types of talks, then people can start talking about the importance of participation trophies. In my opinion

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