In ten years you won’t remember the final score. You’ll remember who sat next to you on the bus ride home.

Results are the reason the thing happens and almost never the part that lasts. What stays is the bus, the changing room, the running joke, the person sitting next to you. That is not a consolation prize for losing, it is an accurate description of what you are actually collecting.

During the season, give some attention to the parts that are not the competition. Learn something real about the people you spend every week with. The scoreboard will fade on its own, and the rest only stays if you were present for it.