(FinalCall.com) --In broad terms, it doesn�t matter if the team from Harlem now playing in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn. goes no further than they have as this column is being written on Aug. 19.

It doesn�t matter because they�ve already proven their mettle. They�ve already represented themselves and their parents and guardians and Harlem�and all the world of Little League baseball�well.

They�ve already shown they understand that obstacles, no matter how daunting, can be transformed into opportunities, if one applies the right kind of "sweat equity" and gets the right kind of help. They�ve shown they get it that achievement matters.

The Harlem Little League was begun 14 years ago and built from scratch by a dedicated coalition of parents and community activists into a network of teams involving 700 boys and girls. National Little League officials have called it "the model" for building Little League baseball programs in inner cities.

"If you can do it in Harlem," Stephen D. Keener, president and chief executive of Little League Baseball, told the New York Times, "you can do it in Houston, Chicago or South Central Los Angeles."

But the Harlem League�s current team of all stars, which had compiled a powerful record and won the national Little League�s Mid-Atlantic Regional championship, was recently shadowed by allegations that several of its players were in violation of the League�s residency-requirement rules.

However, National Little League officials subsequently concluded that the allegations, which, if true, could have disqualified the team, were groundless. Harlem was cleared to enter the Little League World Series.

If that old saying�it�s not whether you win or lose but how you play the game�is true, then the Harlem Little Leaguers have already won more than their weight in gold.

They, and we, can consider the shadows they had to dispel to play in Williamsport as a metaphor for the difficulties off the field some of them have already defeated, and for any difficulties beyond sport to come.

They�ve shown that individuals can "win" by continually and diligently pursuing achievement. They can win by remembering one of the lessons of their season and post-season: When they as a team or as individuals commit themselves to doing well, to doing the hard work necessary to overcome obstacles, and when they have faith that they will succeed, they can do more than anyone expected, be better than anyone expected.

Look at the proud faces of their parents and friends that have been prominent in the local New York City newspapers. Listen to the cheerleading one has heard even on the local newscasts as the team climbed the tournament ladder. Let�s hope the youngsters on the team, throughout Harlem and throughout America, are noticing this is what youthful achievement does: it makes an entire community proud.

These are among the important lessons many of us adults learned from our youthful participation in athletic competition, be it baseball, ice or field hockey, track and field, fencing, figure skating, tennis�you name it.

Those are among the lessons I hope we�ll all do our part to make sure these youngsters from Harlem, and everywhere in America, understand: It�s not just this or that athletic competition that�s important. It�s the mental as well as physical preparation for competition, both within and outside of sports, that one must pay attention to and get right.

Because what lies ahead for all youth is the game of life; and for the overwhelming majority of children, that�s a game they�re not going to play on the gridiron, basketball, tennis, or squash racquets court, or in the swimming pool, or on the soccer field. To do well in this larger, tougher, and more long-lasting game, they�ll need to learn the right lessons and get the right skills in the classroom, too.

Thus, it�s incumbent upon all of us adults to show youngsters, who so easily understand the rewards, hard work and determination can bring in sports, that they can transfer that same spirit to their schoolwork�and reap even greater benefits.

So, just as we understand the Harlem Little Leaguers had to be superbly prepared by their coaches and their parents to get to the Little League World Series, so we should expect�and demand�that they and their peers be superbly prepared for competing in the game of life.

The coaches and directors of the Harlem Little League seem to be doing their part to get that message across. They seem to be following the lead of the couple, Dwight and Iris Raiford, universally credited with establishing the Little League program there. As Bill Perkins, a New York city councilman who once coached in the league, and whose son once played in it, told the Times, the Raifords� ambition wasn�t "to win a championship, but to develop championship kids."

That�s the kind of attitude that builds fields of dreams the whole society can play on.

(Hugh B. Price is president of the National Urban League.)