Letters

Dad used to say, "It's not your environment that makes you, son. It's how you handle it." Thanks to your stories on Pavlik and also Kansas basketball player Darnell Jackson (A Time to Heal, Feb. 11), I see how that actually works in real life.
Victor Druten, Shawnee, Kans.

A Higher Court
As the mother of one of Trinity squash's few American players, I applaud Michael Bamberger's recent article on the team and its winning streak (The Court Supremes, Feb. 11). Long after championships are won and records have been broken, my son and his teammates will have gained a diverse group of friends, knowledge of the world that cannot be gleaned from the classroom, and life lessons from a coach who rarely talks court strategy or strokes at daily practices.
Mimi Tashjian, Old Greenwich, Conn.

While I certainly need my fix of stories about pro sports and big-time college athletics, this kind of piece reminds me, an average guy, of just how good it is for the human soul to test itself through sport; it's a lesson for my kids, too, that there are so many reasons to compete other than to make the NFL or the NBA some day.
Dan Donovan, Ipswich, Mass.

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