Momservation: Nobody wants to be picked last for a team, but it’s the underdog who is given the gift of motivation without the pressure of expectation.

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The lovable loser underdogs who won the Jr. WNBA 3rd/4th Grade Girls Championship at Arco Arena on March 15, 2010

I don’t care who you are, everyone wants to be on a winning team.

You can say “winning isn’t everything,” “we’re all winners here,” or “it’s not who wins but how the game is played” and other inspiring sound bites that are all good in theory.

But the fact is NO ONE walks around saying, “Boy, I hope we really get our a**es handed to us,” “Let’s go out and lose this thing!” or “Man, I hope I stink this up like 10 year-old boy’s soccer cleats.”

Call it basic instinct and the drive for survival of the fittest, call it faithful that hope springs eternal, or call it what it is – the desire to be showered with adulation and glory and hearing “We Are the Champions” as your theme song - it just feels good to win.

Which leads me to children’s sporting teams. Whether your kids are good athletes or not, when you sign them up for a sport your hope is they’ll be on a good team. Either their skill and talent will be supported with equal talent or high tide will raise all boats and your child will come away more well-rounded.  

Unfortunately for the Wheeler Family, I think on sign-up day when the volunteer asks what size uniform my child needs they hear instead, “Please put my child on the lousiest team you can assemble.”

Seriously. Save a year of soccer a-piece, even with my own husband coaching, we have had more Bad News Bears teams than the Sacramento Kings.

But wait – here’s the kicker: Three of those teams have gone on to win the championship!

Call it peaking at the right time, finally pulling it all together, or Mommy paying off the ref (tempting, but the accusations are baseless), these teams went from not being able to win if the game was forfeited to shocking upsets for the whole enchilada!

The most recent, my daughter’s last seed Jr. WNBA basketball team, just won the 3^rd/4^th grade girls division championships at Arco Arena Monday!

And yes, they played “We Are the Champions.” And yes, it felt fabulous to hear their ecstatic glass-breaking screams and see their exuberant faces.

And I don’t care who you are, the calm, cool parent who embraces “it’s all just a game” to the parent who shouts, “Would you just sign your kid up for the Chess Club already?!” - seeing your child blossom as an athlete in one amazing season to win a nail-biter championship?

It’s right up there with finding two prizes in your box of Cracker Jacks.

Because even though losing may build character, winning sure is a heck of a lot more fun.