Article by Lleyton Brouwer

The Importance of Sports

by Lleyton Brouwer 4 June, 2021

An Exclusive Interview with Jeroen Brouwer!

When Jeroen Brouwer was sixteen years old, he was playing for a local football club, on which he was one of the worse players. However, because of the competitive nature that he had fostered throughout his childhood, he was determined to rise to the top of his team. Every single day of the entire season, he would practice for hours on end, improving himself in every way he could think of. In just one season, he would rise from not playing in his games to being one of the best players on his team. His hard work had paid off and he had achieved his seemingly impossible goal.

Sports are unique in that they can build char-

As he grew older, he became more and more involved with sports, specifically soccer, starting from a very young age. He played at his local clubs where he built lifelong friendships, developed his determination and leadership skills. When he went to university, he, like many other people, quit sports completely to focus on his “real” work - but his love for sports could not keep him away for too long, and he joined a rowing team at his university the next year. After he immigrated to the United States in the late 90s, he was not particularly involved in sports - he was much more focused on his work. However, when his

acter in young people like almost nothing else can. They support an environment in which hard work achieves results almost directly, which teach participants that hard work does pay off. Sports foster a competitive spirit that can prove to be useful in almost every aspect of life, like school or work. However, sports, for most people, can’t be the only thing in one’s life. A work-life balance is extremely important, and learning this early in life, in the case of sports, is integral to the development of balancing skills for the rest of athletes’ lives.

Jeroen Brouwer was born into a suburban-rural family in the Netherlands in June 1967.

to spend a lot of time on work, it’s difficult for me to spend little time on work. Because of course, all the time you spend on your work, you cannot spend … playing soccer with your friends - so that’s the tough part. So I really have to push myself to stop working so much, and it’s difficult”.

The love for sports is common across the world, and the benefits are essentially infinite, especially for children, but also for everyone in general. The physical benefits are obvious, especially whent it comes to maintaining a healthy body. Furthermore, sports teach “you to kind of like fight, individually, compete individually, and make sure that if sometimes a few balls go against you, you put yourself over it and learn from that, and try to turn things around”. Sports are important because it builds character through discipline and other life lessons in sports.

Jeroen really thinks pushing his love for sports onto his kids is vitally important to build character - to work hard at something, succeed, and when they don’t succeed, pick themselves back up and try again. This was something that he felt he learned during sports that really helped him a lot in his life.

children started playing sports about a decade later, he felt the need to be more involved by coaching their sports teams, which eventually led to him playing soccer - or as he calls it, football - again. Mr. Brouwer took such a unique path in life, especially when it comes to his balance of work and sports.

His work-life balance from then to now could not be more different. Nowadays, he plays sports almost every day of the week, especially football and cycling. This balance is not easy, however, as he expresses that he really does like to focus on his work when he says, “So, I work a lot … So it’s not difficult for me

Many online resources also is what truly makes him hu- demic. He is actively trying to cite sports as a great way to man in this regard, which is make more time for his life, build character, especially for why this was such an interest- more like how it is now with children. For example, the No-ing perspective to have on this COVID, but in a post-pandemic world. It may be inevivak Djokovic Foundation says particular subject. sports help to “create friend- The COVID pandemic and table that the end of the global ships they otherwise might resulting lockdown have chal- lockdown will completely not have formed”, it helps chil- lenged Jeroen’s work-life bal- change the way his work-life dren “learn to respect author- ance. For the first few months balance is currently situated, ity, rules, team colleagues, and of lockdown, essentially ev- but Jeroen has explicitly statopponents”, and it also “helps eryone had stopped playing ed that he does not want it to building positive self-esteem sports, but as time went on, change drastically. more and more sports started Work-life balance is incredibly in children”.

Jeroen’s work-life balance has back up again. During those important and complicated changed vastly over the years, first few months, though, he - with work needed to have from his earlier school days, became more involved with life, and life needed to have when he was playing a lot of cycling, which was more con- work - as Virginia Young says, venient because it is an indi- “Sports are a great way to defootball; then to university, when he gave up sports com- vidual sport. However, Jeroen velop valuable skills outside of pletely in favor of studying; says the COVID pandemic the classroom… But balancing when he eventually got back has actually helped his work- the two is not easy, though into sports with coaching his life balance, taking away the rest assured you … will benefit kids’ sports teams; and now, need to travel, which he said from the valuable tools gained when he plays a good amount was very time consuming. for the rest of [your] life.” of sports and balances it with He does, however, say that his some difficulty with his work. work-life balance won’t return His constant shift in priorities to what it was before the pan-

About the Author

Lleyton Brouwer is a junior at Los Altos High School, and a Design student at Freestyle Academy. He plays tennis in his free time, and enjoys recording his weekly sports podcast, Second Take Podcast, and competing with the LAHS Quizbowl Club.