Heart Attack Kids (01-18-10)

We should have lost. I want to get that out of the way and warn you that I will repeat that sentiment throughout this column. It is my perspective and if you disagree or don’t want to hear it, stop reading now.

I am not trying to be critical, just realistic. We should have lost, yet somehow our 8th grade boys’ basketball team won the league championship, defeating a solid Phillipsburg Panther team 39-37.

Last week, I focused on this amazing team and their date with destiny. I did this not only to heap some well-deserved praise, but also to try and drum up some support, to fill some seats, and to get people excited about this game.

I may have done the job a little too well - our fans were out in force. In fact, from the moment our boys took the floor for their pre-game warm-ups, it was obvious that Hill City had brought a lot more fans than Phillipsburg. Our students and parents lined two sides of the court for the boys to high-five as they ran into the gym. The enthusiasm was deafening, and that was before the tip off.

Understandably, our boys began the game a little overwhelmed by it all. Our center jumped way too early and the Panthers won the tip-off easily. But in the blink of an eye, we stole the ball and converted a speedy lay-up. Our crowd went berserk and our boys seemed to stagger under the weight of the cheering. We tried to full court press, but a composed Phillipsburg team broke the press and scored.

Suddenly, everything good I had seen throughout the season vanished. Our full court passes failed. Our set offense failed. We missed lay-ups. We missed free throws. Phillipsburg repeatedly broke our press and scored four times, including a trey to build a 9-2 advantage. Coach Jones called a timeout, but our pep-club cheered so loud from behind the bench, I don’t know if the players could even hear him. A minute later and the P-Burg lead was 13-5, and the team reeled from the onslaught of blows.

The best way I can think to describe this game is to compare it to a heavyweight-boxing match. Think of the movie, Rocky. Phillipsburg was the accomplished and multi-dimensional fighter. They hit us hard and fast, raining blows high and low in a frenzy of scoring. We were the punching bag, and time and again we were knocked to the mat, bruised and bloody and completely overmatched.

But here’s the thing. Like Rocky, we refused to stay down. No matter how many times they hit us, no matter how much pain they brought, we refused to stay down for the count.

We began to play defense and began to deny them the basket. Offensively we scratched away at the lead. Through sheer grit and determination, we scratched our way into a 13-13 tie.

Then the Panthers woke up and resumed throwing hay-makers. BAM! BAM! BAM! While it took us most the half to tie the game, Phillipsburg took less than a minute to score thrice and re-build a six-point lead. We were down on the mat once more, with the ref doing the ten-count.

We should have stayed down. Any of a hundred different teams would have stayed down. At that point, Phillipsburg should have pulled away and won by twenty. Again, though, our boys picked themselves up, found their legs, and kept fighting.

In the second half, I noticed a big change, not just in the boys, but in the pep club perched in the stands behind the bench. Both had calmed down.

At this point I want to say a word about our other junior high coach, Chris Gansel. The second half, especially, was filled with incredible drama and intensity, yet every time I looked over at coach Gansel, he looked completely calm and unruffled. He had a look that seemed to say, “Don’t worry team, everything will be okay.” While coach Jones passionately talked strategy, coach Gansel seemed to keep everyone on an even keel.

Our defense ruled the third quarter, holding the potent P-Burg Panthers to just four points. Meanwhile we continued to jab and parry, duck and weave, landing a blow to the body here, and right hook to the jaw there. We started the fourth quarter somehow up by two at 25-23. We should have been losing. We continued to miss lay-up after lay-up and free throw after free throw, yet still we kept coming.

In the fourth quarter, both fighters let it all hang out. P-burg surged ahead. Then, wonderfully, our boys briefly found their stride. Looking like the team I had grown to love during the last few weeks, we erupted in our own frenzy of scoring and got ahead by five points. Our crowd stood and cheered. Surely, we thought, this was it. The mighty Running Ringnecks had woken at last and the game was ours.

Not even close. All our burst of scoring seemed to do was step on the Panther’s tail. With a mighty roar, the gold and purple cats came back with eight points of their own, faster than it has taken me to type in the words. Again, we were on the mat. The opposition was rejoicing. The fat lady was warming up.

Really it was their game to lose at that point. Phillipsburg went into “milk-the-clock” mode and knocked off a full minute with fast, accurate passing until mercifully the refs called a foul. With a minute and a half remaining, all P-Burg had to do was wait to be fouled and sink their free throws.

The details of those final ninety seconds are a bit a blur to me. A lot happened. We scored, they scored. We fouled, they fouled. Our boys played their most intense basketball of the year, and Phillipsburg buckled under the increased pressure. We stole a pass and tied the score. We then rebounded a missed free throw, executed a perfect pass and catch, and put the ball in the hole for a two-point lead just before time ran out.

A team’s heart is best judged when everything is goes wrong. When a team plays well, they should win, but when a team plays poorly, they should lose. On Thursday night, when our team should have lost, we still found a way to win.

To me, that is the definition of heart. It was the only area in which we outplayed the Phillipsburg Panthers, and in the end it was the only thing that mattered. Try as they might, Phillipsburg could never quite deliver the knockout. Our heart kept beating, our heart kept us in this game, and our heart gave us the victory.

I don’t know what the future holds for these young men. Coach Riley at the high school will have his hands full and the players will have to improve in many ways. However, if the heart they showed at the league championship game is any indication, the next four years may be quite a ride for these heart-attack kids.