After the Minnesota Class A state golf meet wraps up this week, another sports season is in the books. This was my 13th year covering high school sports for a newspaper and often my stories have revolved around which team won the game, how they won the game, and who helped them win the game.

But sometimes it’s important to look beyond the box score. Sports are not simply about who won and who lost. They provide so much more for high school athletes, college athletes, pro athletes and athletes who are just playing to have some fun.

Some of my best sports memories are of playing pick up basketball with my friends in college. Some of my most memorable games were between my brother and I, We used to play some epic one-on-one basketball games in my parent’s driveway that sometimes lasted well after midnight.

The best part about those games is that if everybody plays their hardest and gets into the contest, it’s a blast. The worst part about about those games is when one or two competitors start to sulk or play lazy, it just takes the fun out of it for everyone else. Of course that’s assuming your friends like to play team ball and you don’t have to play with ‘that guy’ who thinks he’s Carmelo Anthony and looks to shoot the ball every time he gets his hands on it.

My point is those games were fun because I played hard, I played with my friends, and we played together. We had a common goal and we were willing to make the necessary sacrifices it took for the better part of the team. It really was a slice of the real world.

When you move on to college or your first job, you’ll find that sometimes you’ll have to do things that may be hard and may require work. If your first reaction is to give up or complain about that task, chances are you aren’t going to last very long. But if you give it all you’ve got and keep a positive attitude, you’ll grow and get better each day on whatever it is you do.

Of course the real debate with sports these days seems to be how important winning is. There are some who claim wins and losses shouldn’t matter and there are others who claim winning is the only thing.

One of the times I was playing basketball with my friends at a middle school court we couldn’t help but notice an 8th place trophy on display for the local basketball team. We found it hilarious that a team would be rewarded for winning a game or two in an eight-game tournament.

Needless to say, I’m not a fan of ‘everyone being a winner,’ but I don’t think losers need to be written off either. Losses are the most teachable moments in sports. Instead of telling kids they didn’t lose after a loss, coaches should be telling them the things they did right and the things they can work on.

Losses force a team or athlete to look in the mirror and evaluate where they are. The team or athlete can choose to try and get better, or they can simply be satisfied with losing.

Winning certainly isn’t everything in sports, but it should be a goal. When players decide to sacrifice their own individual gains for the greater good, winning is usually a pretty good side effect that goes along with that attitude. That was the case with the Austin boys basketball team that went to state three years in a row and it was the case with the Lyle-Pacelli girls basketball team that went to state this past winter. Those teams didn’t care who scored the most points, as long as their team had more than their opponent at the end of the game. In fact that attitude was probably shared by just about every state qualifying team I’ve covered in my time as a sportswriter.

When kids are worried about their stats or what colleges are recruiting them, they’re not fully invested in making their teammates better players and they’re cheating themselves of a great experience. Sports, at it’s core, is about the greater good of all and not the greater good of one. It’s also a chance to build strong friendships and create a bond that can’t be broken.

That’s why I think sports are just as good a teaching tool as any class. When done correctly, sports teach kids to work together for a common purpose.

That will truly help them in all walks of life.

Follow Rocky Hulne on twitter @RockyHulneADH.