There’s more to gain from sports than diagramming a play or learning the proper way to throw a curveball, Jarred Latta notes.
Take failure, for example.
“Failure is inevitable, in sports and in life,” Latta said. “We all fail. In order to grow, one must learn to accept failure and fear.”
There are myriad other lessons, from perseverance, learning teamwork and developing leadership skills, that come from competitive athletics.
And it’s a natural connection for Latta, 26, whose life revolved around sports since he was a child growing up on a farm near Iola.
The 2012 Iola High School graduate played baseball for two years at Allen Community College before moving on to the University of Kansas, where he earned degrees in business administration and sports management. From there, Latta worked for three years in Kansas Athletics before moving in March to Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, La., where he serves as director of development.
Latta — son of Iolans Randy and Patricia Latta — visited with the Register’s Tim Stauffer recently about how sports have influenced his life, on and off the field.
LATTA’S earliest memories usually involved playing baseball with brothers Ryan and Trent on their family farm just outside Iola.
“We would invite other friends to play with us, and the games usually ended in a fight,” he joked.
But from the competition came perseverance. From perseverance came strength.
In short, playing sports “molded us each individually into what we are today,” Latta said.
“Sports teach kids many valuable lessons,” he said, pointing to leadership, body language, controlling emotions, commitment, failure and perseverance.
Leadership translates well later in life, Latta said.
As for body language, Latta noted Louisiana Tech’s baseball coaches target recruits who display positive body language.
“The worst thing coaches these days focus on is the scoreboard,” he said. “It sends the wrong message, It portrays that everything is OK — if you win.
“Growing up, I played on some teams where the coaches were just awful to their kids,” Latta said. “If you have to scream and yell at your kid in public because they struck out to end a baseball game, what is that teaching them? You have to find the silver lining. If all you do is scream and yell at your kids, they are going to be scared of failure… It’s just not a fun atmosphere for the child and despite what the parent thinks, that mindset is not the right one.”
