Hi confusedjw,
My daughter's ex boyfriend, a very nice, rather confused JW teenager, has been heavily involved in school sports. He played school softball, volleyball and waterpolo and has done track. He is an amazing natural athlete. He was not allowed to play community hockey, but did play pickup type games with "the brothers". He was almost teary once when he told me how much he would have liked to play organized hockey.
This boy is not baptized. His father is an elder and something much higher as well, I believe. He gives his son a rather long leash, as long as he still goes to meetings and mostly hangs out with other JWs. This same boy is also playing in a local rock band with other JW teens, I hear, and competes in "Battle of the Band" competitions.
Sports has done nothing but good things for that boy. He lived a complete double life, and very few of his teammates had much if any idea of the implications of him being JW. He is an honor student. As far as I know, he is a good kid, and not involved with drugs or sex or much drinking. I don't know if things have changed since he has involved with the rock band, other than I think being in a band makes you a girl magnet, and I suspect he would enjoy that.
I have to say, these parents are handling this boy with a lot of smarts. If they tied him down too hard, he would really rebel. This way he gets to do some of what he wants, and still remains very connected with the JW community. I'm sure that they hope eventually he will settle down and get baptized and meet a nice JW girl, and fall completely into line. Perhaps his exposure to the outside world has opened his eyes, but I really have no idea. He wasn't questioning the party line much, the last time I spoke to him, a long time ago.
