Not even brutal loss can damper great GHS season

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Not that you ever get to choose, but I’ve sometimes wondered whether losing by a wide margin in a season-ending sporting event would be better in some ways than the heartbreaking defeat that Greencastle suffered in high school football on Friday.

Danville was pinned on its own 1-yard-line with about four minutes to go in a tie game, and pulled off a seemingly impossible 99-yard touchdown pass to escape with a 21-14 victory.

The only other ways to lose in equivalent manners would be a game-winning, walkoff homer in the bottom of the last inning in baseball and softball, or a halfcourt shot at the buzzer in basketball.

Home runs happen fairly often, so while the timing may be just as crushing those aren’t as painful compared to the others.

I have lost a few games over the years on halfcourt buzzer-beaters, and while those also hurt badly, they are far more common than what happened Friday night.

I have seen a lot of football games over the years, and while there have occasionally been extremely long runs from scrimmage or interception returns — I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that play.

The pressure by the defense was good, the quarterback was able to escape, he heaved the ball as far as he could and a receiver happened to be in the area.

Sitting in the press box on the Greencastle side of the stands, you could hear the groans from the crowd as the receiver caught the ball and outran the defenders.

To Greencastle’s credit, the Tiger Cubs didn’t give up despite this horrific turn of events, and were in a position to score in the last minute of the game.

A better chance to score the potentially game-winning points might have been a field goal on the preceding drive, which ended with a “pooch” punt by Nick Costin that had pinned the Warriors at the one.

A pair of penalties had pushed the Tiger Cubs out of field goal range.

I overheard many parents and fans talking after the game, and no bad thoughts were expressed.

There’s no way anyone could feel badly about this season, despite how it ended, considering the 180-degree turnaround from last year.

I had the opportunity to talk with several senior players throughout the season about the turnaround, and if they didn’t previously have an understanding of the value and benefits of hard work they definitely do now.

Some of them will go on to play college football, but for most this will be their last football game ever — with the exception of the Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association All-Star contest next summer.

But they will carry on the knowledge and experience of what they did in the weight room and on the football field to improve themselves for the rest of their lives. Lessons like that are some of the magical things that make sports such an important part of the school experience.

And they are all better for it.

For me, it was refreshing to see a closely-contested game in spite of the outcome. That didn’t happen a lot this year.

I like high school football, but I have wondered for many years why so few of the games go down to the wire or have the winning margin in single digits. No one else seems to know, either.

Perhaps no team exemplifies this situation better than North Putnam. The Cougars had a good season at 7-4, and after winning close games the first two weeks their last nine were all decided by double figures. Other than one margin of 11 and one of 14, the others were all decided by 21 points or more.

I covered 11 games this fall, and the first 10 did not come close to living up to the drama of Friday’s Greencastle-Danville game.

The average margin of victory in my games was 23 points, with six games decided by 21 points or more, and only one other game ending in single digits — but even then the outcome was not seriously in doubt until an interception return in the final minute.

Three were shutouts, and for the others I can’t remember any second-half lead changes. If there were any, they were rare.

In the past, I have blamed the person making the assignments for sticking me with mismatches that nobody else wanted to cover.

I can’t really do that now, since I make those decisions. I covered five of the six intra-county games, and for the others I chose to cover I basically tried to balance out the number of times I saw all four county teams.

So in reflection, I will never think again that I would prefer to avoid the pain of a crushing loss.

Greencastle’s team has much of which to be proud, and its effort on Friday night is just one item on that list.

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