When I was going to my golf regional tournament on Monday, I thought it was just going to be another golf tournament. Then I made the state tournament, and that was good, but I never expected to be impacted by one of my opponents.

When I got to the first tee box, I saw one of my opponents in jeans and thought to myself how weird that was to see at a golf tournament. If you know anything about golf, it is typically a country club sport with a lot of wealth shown in the clothes you wear and type of clubs you have.

However, this kid, a golfer from a Denver public high school in a rough part of Aurora was standing there in jeans, an untucked shirt, and Jordan shoes. Through the first few holes, he was having a rough time mishitting balls and missing putts. After my second hole, my coach Mr. Mike Conner, came and told me that one of my opponents was homeless.

It shocked me.

It blew my mind actually. Here he was, without a home, but competing for his school. That has totally changed my opinion on high school sports in general. So many people get caught up in the competition, they forget the spirit of high school athletics.  I still want to win, but this player’s situation gave me perspective.

Therefore, from this point on whenever I am in a golf tournament or in a baseball game and I am caught up in the smaller picture of it all I will think of my regional opponent and remind myself that things could be worse and I just need to have fun with it. I don’t know him well at all, but if I could talk to him one more time, I would thank him for what I took away from playing with him in that one golf tournament.