a lot -- and little of it good -- about the state of sports in Bermuda.

One was an obituary for Alma (Champ) Hunt, arguably Bermuda's greatest cricketer, who died over the weekend. The other reported on yet another outbreak of soccer violence, in which a player, having been sent off, threw a bottle at a referee who then rightly abandoned the FA Cup semi-final.

Champ Hunt stood for much that is good in sports. An outstanding cricketer who dominated Cup Match when he played and an exemplary professional in Scotland, he returned home to serve his Country as a great teacher and an outstanding administrator.

It should not be forgotten that it was under his tenure as president of the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control that Bermuda cricket attained its greatest heights, reaching the semi-final of the ICC tournament in 1979 and going one step further in 1982 by reaching the final, where the national team lost to Zimbabwe, which became a Test nation soon after.

But the dominating event of Champ Hunt's life occurred much earlier than that when he was invited to trials for the West Indies in 1932 and, by all accounts, outplayed all the players there, only to be rejected by the selectors.

Many people would have been embittered by that experience and would have turned their backs on cricket as a result. But Champ Hunt instead turned that personal defeat into a personal strength, going on to improve himself as a player and later taking Bermuda to the heights of international cricketing renown.

MP Elvin James, the current president of the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control, recalled in yesterday's paper that Mr. Hunt spoke to members of Bermuda's national team 18 months ago: "The real message that Mr. Hunt tried to instil was that success is not in the triumph but in the struggle. It's in the manner in which the player prepares himself and approaches the game, this will eventually bring out the true character of a player.'' Mr. Hunt's viewpoint contrasts so greatly with the recent outbreaks of violence on the Island's soccer fields that it makes one question if the players concerned are from the same planet, let alone the same Island.

Insofar as sports are a metaphor for life, athletes must learn to deal with defeat, rejection and disappointment. And they need to learn to play within the rules of the game and to accept the discipline that comes with it.

Instead of lashing out, the athlete in the Champ Hunt mold used disappointment to strengthen his resolve and to learn from his errors; thus the rejected Test cricketer became the administrator who enabled Bermuda to have an international role by playing a central part in the creation of the ICC tournament.

It is to Bermuda's shame that today's football players cannot learn the same lessons.