I found your post to be very interesting and thoughtful, but I'd like to add one thing to these questions:

I look at young people today and wonder who gives them a chance to lead? Is it only through sports that we learn skills to be leaders?

Who gives young people the chance to fail?  I find that today's practice of allowing young kids (pre-high school) to participate in everything, to never not make a team, to be severely handicapping them for the real world.  AND everyone gets a ribbon or medal, be it in a sports activity or classroom, no matter how creative the reason.  Unfortunately this practice is slowly infiltrating the high schools and even some colleges.

I was fortunate to grow up in the 60's and 70's and ya know what?  I didn't make every team I tried out for and I didn't get a reward just for participating in everything, and I am ever so thankful.  I tried harder in order to make the team and receive recognition --- in other words, I EARNED these rewards.

What scares me the most is that as I approach retirement age, the people I'm going to be relying upon are the ones who were never taught that they had to earn their position, instead they were taught they were entitled to it simply by showing up.

Sports is a fantastic place to learn leadership...but so too it's a place to learn how to work for what you want - just as you did.