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Motion, commotion and competition: influences on a Satellite Sister and her seven ''sporting'' siblings.

Article Excerpt
Our house was a battlefield, in the sporting sense. I grew up with three older brothers, four older sisters and dozens of cousins who arrived at odd intervals and often stayed for weeks. We were, in essence, our own team. We were well equipped with balls, bats and racquets of all kinds. There was no contest too inane, no event too trivial, no sport too vicious at which we would not compete. We made up the rules, created our own playing fields and kept score.

More often than not, the battle line was clearly drawn: boys vs. girls. As the littlest, I arrived late on the scene, so I'm not sure when this age-old rivalry started in our house, but I think it was pretty much from the get-go. The boys thought they were better at everything: sports, school, getting out of household chores. And the girls spent a childhood trying to prove them wrong. We bonded together to overcome the age and size advantage held by the boys. This strategy worked well in team events. But when the competition broke down to one-on-one play, the mismatch often went in the boys' favor.

Often, the competitions were fashioned after real events. We grew up in rural Connecticut, so there were lots of outdoor activities -- from skating to sledding to swimming. Those kinds of activities lent themselves beautifully to challenging the opposite sex to go higher, faster, stronger. Actual games like dodge ball, kickball and touch football were popular, especially if we could round up a few neighbors or cousins to fill out the teams. But if we couldn't manage real sports due to inclement weather, we'd just make do and make...