In my column last week I mentioned that people should look at the bigger picture when it comes to making decisions on coaches rather than just wins and loses. It was kind of funny, after going back and reading through my words, that I realized I needed to practice what I preach, so to say.

As most of you know, in my free time I play a lot of softball on the weekends. Well every weekend, weather permitting, to be exact. Myself along with another good friend have our own co-ed team, although since he is in charge of our men's team, I pretty much run the co-ed team -- with a lot of input from certain players of course.

As I also mentioned in last week's piece I am one of the most competitive people you will meet. Although in most of the tournaments that we play in, we are just playing for free T-shirts that say "tournament champions", I play and try to coach each and every game like its the seventh game of the World Series.

Unlike high school, college and pro teams, we do not have a set roster and pretty much anyone can play on our team in these tournaments. With prior commitments and other more important things in everyday life, not everyone is able to play every weekend or for the whole tournament.

This past weekend, our co-ed team played in a Relay for Life tournament in Carlisle. Three days prior to the start of the tournament, I learned that one player had laser surgery on their feet and was not going to be available for the weekend, which left me sifting through my contacts in my cell phone and friends on myspace and facebook for possible replacements. Also another player was only going to be able to play until a certain time on Saturday, which created another problem.

Seems how when other teams are needing players, my phone always rings to help search for them, my softball contact list is pretty big. The more serious problem that I ran into was on Sunday when I had an extra female player. This should not have been a problem as everyone was aware of the situation and everyone was willing to sit the bench for a few so that everyone saw action on the field.

I ended up avoiding this conflict by telling one of my better players they were not needed cause I knew they would have to miss church in order to play on Sunday. I simply told them playing a softball game should take a back seat to going to church.

Had I not gave thought about what I mentioned in my column about placing too much importance on winning, I most likely would have told the person they were a vital part to us winning the tournament and they needed to miss church and help us win -- a $10 T-shirt!

We ended up getting beat, by one run, and finished third. I was not happy about the finish, but after all the second guessing about the game was over, I moved on and was satisfied that our entry fee to play in the tournament was going towards a great cause.

I know a lot of the readers here in the area most likely do not care about the extra curricular activities of this sports writer, but I just thought the moral of the story should be important. For once, I made on decision on the ball field that had nothing to do about winning. There are some things, actually a lot of things, that should be held above winning or losing when it comes to sports.

I will not mention the person's name, cause they know who they are, but I would just like to express my gratitude to them for making me realize this important fact and to also help me practice what I preach.

Travis David is a sports writer for the Greene County Daily World and can be reached at 812-847-4487 ext. 20 or tdavid@gcdailyworld.com.