There Are No Losers Here
I don't often root for teams.
Even when I was a sports writer, I didn't root for teams. If I know a coach or a player, I want them to feel good. In a sense, I subliminally root for them because I want the people I know to feel good.
Three coaches I have had the good fortune to cover for extended periods all recognized this and, in the long run, it strengthened the friendship. They knew my work started when theirs ended that night.
The last buzzer, the final gun and I could finally start writing.
One of them insisted on asking me out to dinner after big games and being hurt when I couldn't make it. If she had only
delayed eating for two hours . . .
Friends are more important than
wins. Of course, when their seasons ended prematurely, as most do, with a tournament elimination loss, that's a bummer.
More for the players than the coach. I have yet to meet a coach who thought he or she was not coming back next season.
My writing style has edged towards the sublime when it comes to marking out a really bad play. You can write "Then they fumbled" rather than "Then Mikey dropped the ball again."
Small difference. Large effect.
Especially in high school. I could not imagine being a high school player nowadays. Some high school players, as my publisher has written, get their names on national TV.
Yikes. When I was 18, I was happy if I didn't have a big ol' zit on my forehead, if that special girl smiled back from the sidelines, then I worried about if my team won.
Nowadays, it could be national news if you win enough.
Apparently, if you lose enough as well.
A big paper the next county north of us recently devoted a majority of its front page and several pictures to the fact Oregon-Davis could well become the team which loses the most consecutive high school boys basketball games in the state.
Even if you read that mean-spirited story, I challenge you to remember who has the record now.
No point to it. Fact is, Oregon-Davis cannot even lose enough this season to match the mark.
So why hang the tag on this year's team?
Why wonder at all? There seems so many bad sides and not one good one to focusing on negativity. I know some writers get their yucks doing this. I know some newspapers think it is a way to sell newspapers.
I do not.
I was fortunate enough to be a scorekeeper at the fabulous Plymouth summer league, a gathering of high-school aged boys, usually all from the same school, usually coached by a coach from that school.
The Plymouth league is the only NCAA-sanctioned league in the state, which means it is the only one NCAA coaches can come to and watch.
Even though there is no rule against it, the teams don't usually include just-graduated seniors. So it's the team (in some schools' efforts, several teams) which will play varsity the coming season.
Yes, the usual winners won.
Oregon-Davis was there. They won, in my assessment, by attitude.
While other teams griped about heat, court conditions and the sunsets, Oregon-Davis players showed up ready to go and ready to play.
They did not hang their heads after a loss. They talked about it, planned how to do better the next day (if it was the Saturday game; we had Saturday and Sunday games) or the next week.
As the summer wound down, some teams had fellas who didn't show up anymore once their team was out of the running for the title. In fact, the team that eventually won the league had one loss because some guys showed up late and the happy dad/coach proved he'd rather play short-handed with folks who were there when the game started than with guys who rolled up a few minutes after tipoff.
One game, Oregon-Davis missed 10 of 15 free throws. They lost by five.
If they just had hit half of the free ones they missed . . .
They celebrated being so close. They celebrated playing.
No one likes to lose. No one plans to lose. A famous college football coach (he's in the College Football Hall of Fame) once patiently explained to me that even a handoff to the fullback on a line plunge is designed, in football theory, to be a touchdown. If the bull rush gets you past the mass of defenders, you have clear sailing.
Oregon-Davis has a few games left this season.
I never pull for any team to win.
I am changing that as of now.
And I will challenge any newspaper who overcovered the losses to devote the same space, same number of pictures to the win.
It says here that coverage won't happen.
But we'll be happy to tell you all about it.
I think the Oregon-Davis community knows who the winners are. The art is in the attempt.
If you never try, you'll never fly.
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