More Than a Game: How Adult Sport Builds Social Connections and Community

In the fall and winter, he packs up his hockey gear and heads to the rink for a weekly pickup game that he’s organized. Once ice is taken out in the spring, he switches over to the roller version of the game, an adult drop-in opportunity as part of a youth league he helped found.

For Dave Sehn, sport provides some active relief from a work day which keeps him parked solidly behind a desk in his management position in the telecommunications industry. While cognizant of the obvious physical benefits of adult sport, it hadn’t dawned on him until just recently that the social connections such activity can provide could also lead to a longer, and healthier life.

The ‘light bulb’ moment for Sehn, a member of the Lethbridge Sport Council (LSC) Board of Directors and its Chair-elect, occurred while listening to a podcast about the research findings of Harvard professor Robert Putnam. The title of Putnam’s bestselling book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, refers to a declining enrolment in bowling leagues with a growing number preferring to bowl on their own.

Also the subject of a more recent documentary, Join or Die, Putnam’s work outlines how a decline in the number of people joining clubs – whether they are religious, labour, service or sport-centered – undermines the active civic engagement which a strong democracy requires of its citizens. It also speaks to research, corroborated by Dr. Peter Attia in his book, Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity, which shows our health isn’t keeping up to our increased lifespan and one of the critical factors in longevity is a connection to community.

“Staying active and connecting community are two components that sport brings together. So you’re adding up to this culmination of you can live longer, and you can live healthier as well, by creating strong connections and staying active,” says Sehn. “When I look at why I want to stay active, it’s from the selfish perspective that I want to be able to continue playing hockey when I’m in my 70s. I think that would be a neat goal, but it’s all about how I’m ensuring I have that health span in my later years. And if we have healthier connections and get better communities out of that, a stronger democracy, that’s a bonus.”

Clubs or leagues, notes Putnam, can also bring together people with differing perspectives. Sehn says adult sport attracts people who share a common interest but may have very dissimilar upbringings. The wide-ranging topics of locker room conversations can provide “social lubricant” when it comes to difficult concepts like politics, he says, and help broaden our horizons.

“You can have a better discussion, an easier discussion, because you’ve gotten to know the person first and you realize they can have a difference in opinion, and that they’re not just someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” says Sehn.

More often the voice for youth sport, Lethbridge Sport Council has made a conscious effort to highlight adult programs available in the area (see below, or link to article). Many of those activities involve leagues, and an environment which encourages social interaction and a sense of belonging and connectedness that builds community.

Such opportunities are even more valuable at a time when people are more socially isolated than ever before. A lack of face-to-face interaction was magnified during the pandemic, says Putnam, and has carried over through a steady rise in screen time.

Now in his mid-40s, Sehn can’t recall a desire to connect with others as a motivational factor in his early involvement in sport. He and his four brothers were encouraged to get outside and out from under their mother’s feet in their Vancouver-area home. From there, his participation in sport was always from a recreational perspective, rather than a competitive mindset. His involvement in organized sport ended in his early teens and wasn’t reignited until he discovered roller hockey in his 20s.

Sehn now realizes most of the connections he’s made since moving to Lethbridge 15 years ago have come through sport. In a desire to continue playing roller hockey he had to start his own league, since there was a void locally.

“You’ve got to connect with people to be able to build the sport. Because I moved from somewhere else, I had to create those connections and I realize that all of them have come through a desire to go play,” he says.

Sehn acknowledges there are challenges for adults trying to find time to participate in sport, including increased work pressures and a commitment to prioritize the needs of their children. His advice? Be a little selfish.

“I appreciate how active parents are with their kids; how caring of their families they are. But at the end of the day, it can come at a sacrifice of their own health, and from a long-term perspective, that doesn’t benefit anybody,” he says, adding it’s also important for parents to model the behaviour of an active lifestyle for their children.

Adults would also best be served by taking a risk when it comes to choosing a sport to participate in, says Sehn. With so many different opportunities out there, there’s nothing wrong with trying something new to see if there’s a fit. While he’d like to see roller hockey enrolment continue to grow, if a player comes out one season and doesn’t return the next, he isn’t going to lose sleep over it. Hopefully, they may have found something else that does work for them, says Sehn, who recently added golf to his active interests.

He also hopes adults aren’t hesitant to join sport for the first time, or return to those they once played earlier, over concerns of their skill level. While healthy competition is a good thing, at the end of the day most adults are just looking for a little healthy fun.

“It all leads to beer league,” says Sehn, with a chuckle. “Even if you did make it to the National Hockey League, at some point you’re still going to end up in beer league.”

This story is the first in a series highlighting the impact of sport in adulthood. Over the coming months, we'll share stories of adults in Lethbridge who have embraced new sports or rekindled their love for activities from their youth. Whether it's for social connection, physical health, or simply the joy of play, these stories will show us how sport can change our lives at any age.

We encourage you to visit our adult sport and recreation guide resource to see what options Lethbridge has for adults looking to get involved.