Team sports fever is in the air with the Summer Olympics in recent memory and the World Series coming. Nowhere is the fever more fervent than in high schools. My grandniece is committing her energy to her track team’s grueling practices. My grandson, who attends an arts high school in a film-making program, is bemoaning his school’s lack of a soccer team (his beloved sport). My granddaughter, a cellist who’s just graduated from LaGuardia School of the Arts, has always claimed orchestra as her team sport.

What team sports offer young people is an authentic sense of belonging, a key component of Na Hopena A‘o (“HA”), the framework of outcomes that was developed to reflect the Hawaii Department of Education’s (HIDOE) core values and beliefs. The HA goal is to develop the competencies that strengthen a sense of Belonging, Responsibility, Excellence, Aloha, Total-well-being and Hawaii (“BREATH”) in our school communities. HIDOE asserts that, with a foundation in Hawaiian values, language, culture and history, HA (which translates to the “breath of life”) reflects the uniqueness of Hawaii and is meaningful in all places of learning. I can affirm that assertion. I’ve seen it actualized in real school life.

Belonging to a team gives students the opportunity to participate in cooperative great works.

The Hawaiian ancestors were gifted at collective enterprise, at working together to accomplish great mutual purposes and achievements that went far beyond what any individual could produce alone. That might be the Hawaiian thrill of victory. The ancient people thrilled, too, to the excitement of friendly sports competition with the annual Makahiki games in every district.

But what about the multitude of students who are not athletes, who don’t make the team? How can they experience that thrill of collective victory, that sense of belonging to the group that creates the glory?

There are many ways in place in our schools now: school performances such as orchestra and band concerts, theater shows and our beloved May Day pageants. There are team competitions that are not physical sports, such as the Mathletes and History Day programs.

In my 4th-grade teaching practice back in the old days at Hauula Elementary, I produced two major “clan enterprises” annually. One was the publication of the class anthology of family stories. At the “publication party,” during which we celebrated and honored ourselves and our families, each author gave a reading and was sincerely applauded and congratulated.

The second, traditional collective masterwork was our Grade Four Hoike [show], mounted in our school cafetorium at year’s end. The entire community was invited to this one-hour concert of songs, chants, hula and speech. Every single fourth-grader performed, as an important member of the group.

My Ulu A‘e Transitions Grant Team provides this thrilling experience for the students of classes who participate in our projects when we hold a mini hoike at project’s end, to which family and community are invited. The class’ great work is showcased, and all students are applauded by their peers and families as the stars they are.

I see two key ingredients in the thrill of team sports and collective performance.

First, these are inclusive events — every member of the team, the cast, the band, the class is valued, belongs to, owns and shares the glory.

And second, there is an appreciative audience, especially family, to applaud publicly.

I hope our overtasked teachers can create more of these group victories in small to large scale. I hope that every child at some point in their education journey gets to experience the thrill of being a shining star in a glorious constellation.

Elly Tepper is a consultant educator and Ulu A‘e Transitions Grant Team member.