We ALL get wet from time to time. Like in the 7th grade at Taft Middle School when I had a crush on a gal many moons ago and I mustered up enough courage to ask her to go to the Crown Theater to watch a flick.
The 30 seconds of silence was only broken by the noise of some spiritual crickets chirping. And her voice eventually screaming, “Are you kidding me?” That was a long time ago. I got over the painful slight. Last Thursday I think it was. We all fail. Librarians. Pro basketball players. Aunt Bee. Preachers. Jussie Smollett. Journalists. Clueless journalists. Owners of MLB teams. The folks who sweep up the trash at the end of million-dollar games. The cabbie, teacher, iron worker, mothers, crossing guards, fathers, circus clowns, politicians, politicians and politicians. All of us. So what do you do if you miss the game-tying free throw with .2 seconds left on the clock? Give up a bomb in the 9th inning? Say something to someone you shouldn’t have? Or ask a girl out who is in another league? Well, we can never stop believing in ourselves. Get up the next day to work as hard as possible to improve. Drink more orange juice. Make the adjustments needed to get better at our crafts. Never ever lose faith in what wonderful thing can happen each day. The sun will come up tomorrow, bet your bottom … I saw a wonderful thing on Saturday at LaPorte High School. The Crown Point Lady Bulldogs were playing Hamilton Southeastern in the Class 4A girls basketball semistate. The high-flying Royals played exceptionally, while C.P. had a dud. As the clock was slipping to zeroes in the fourth quarter, Crown Point senior Paige Sanborn was taken out of the game that ended up at 61-28. Bulldogs’ coach Chris Seibert wanted to allow the players soon to graduate to get one last round of applause. Isn’t that a great thing? A pat on the back no matter what the scoreboard says. Tears were streaming down Sanborn’s cheeks, like the faces on most the other Bulldogs. They had worked so hard. Spent much of the last four months together. Every day. Almost every minute. And it was ending with a crushing thud. Sorrow. Sadness. Understandable. Sanborn walked to the bench and hugged every coach. The same thing happened with every teammate. I’ve seen this scene occur hundreds of times through the years. It is always emotional. That is the way to go out, folks. Remembering all the joys and the friendships you’ve made. The sleepovers and treats. The laughter, the tears, and always thinking of the smiles. Those things can not me taken away. Every athlete’s career comes to an end. Michael Jordan, the GOAT, isn’t hooping it up like he once did. The clock on the wall slows us all. For those who still have games, get up and work to get better. It will come. For those who are done, remember what this is all about. The relationships you made with peers and coaches, some of the greatest educators around. We all trip and fall down. We all get the game-winning hit and hear the screams of adulation and get the hugs from mates. Both make our lives what they are -- absolutely wonderful. Enjoy the ups and downs with a smile and fierce determination to get better and, please, drink more buttermilk.
2 Comments
Lisa
2/21/2019 11:27:45 am
thank you for the article! These girls have all made such an impact on girls basketball this year! They all have an incredible bond that they will treasure forever! All of them are champions in & off the court.
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8/1/2022 02:10:24 pm
Instagram kaliteli beğeni satın almak, Instagram Türk beğeni satın almak ve Instagram ucuz beğeni satın almak için en doğru adres. Web sitemize girip güvenli ödeme seçenekleriyle sen de Instagram kaliteli beğeni satın al.
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Meet SteveNWI's Steve Hanlon is forever a columnist, and he now writes a blog. Check it out. Archives
March 2020
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