The recently created Picayune Basketball Association is giving children in the Picayune area the opportunity to learn how to play the sport of basketball.

Despite the fact that children can become better athletes by joining the youth basketball league, they also pick up life skills such as teamwork, social interaction and playing by the rules.

Other benefits range from learning how to communicate better, improved hand-eye coordination, confidence and leadership.

When children join a sports team, they have the opportunity to meet new people and possibly start life-long friendships.

Due to my involvement in athletics at an early age, I had the opportunity to meet people from different areas of the state and even the country.

And even though I haven’t seen some of those individuals in a long time, every now and then we still take a couple of minutes out of our daily lives and let each other know how we’re doing.

Whether it is high school, college or professional athletics, or even youth league, everyone on the team works to improve their skillset in order to win every game. But most of the time winning every game is easier said than done. Winning is always fun but what we take away from a loss is more important and can help us become a better person down the road.

That’s because when we lose, we start thinking of ways to improve in order to be on the winning side next time.

All of these concepts apply in real life.

Life is not always going to go our way; every day of our time on this planet brings new obstacles to our lives, but learning how to handle those obstacles and difficulties in life can help us achieve a better tomorrow.