The upside of losing; the downside of winning
Everybody loves to win, everybody hates to lose, generally speaking.
As the old ABC sports announcer used to intone “The ecstasy of victory, the agony of defeat.”
But sports isn’t always about always winning all the time. First, because that is hard to do, and secondly, some things can only be learned by losing.
When I was a freshman competing in the 400-meter for Monett in the 1960s, we were at the Pittsburg Relays which was a monster meet with close to 80 schools competing in an all-day Saturday event. Being a 54 second runner in such a meet, I had no chance to win anything and I was okay with that. Then there was a late scratch in the fast heat of the 400 and my coach slid me into lane 8 of that heat. I could have perhaps won my slower assigned heat with guys about my speed but coach messed up all that.
It was a fast heat. Like really, really fast.
The guy (Kenny Randall) from Kansas City Central ran a 46 on a cinder tracks. He later went on to run for UCLA and win a gold relay medal in the Olympic Games. On that day in Kansas, I ran a 55, a distant eighth with seventh place somewhere around 52 seconds. The KC runner blew by me so fast I barely saw him as he ran his first 200 in 21 seconds.
I was not happy with my coach and when I saw him, he told me, “Well, now you know what good likes like. I noticed you didn’t have your best time.” Before I had time to come up with an excuse, he went on to tell me “Someone running faster than you should not make you run slower. Learn from the experience.”
That gave me something to think about.
Had I won my heat that day (which would have been kind of meaningless) I would have learned nothing. Because of my perceived embarrassment, I resolved to train harder and never, ever, get beat like that again. I did and I wasn’t.
Back in 2015, the Blackhawks were in the state semifinals playing down in Nashville and we were whipped fairly soundly on that occasion. The Scrappers were undefeated that year and were 12-0 the next year when we advanced in the playoffs to find ourselves scheduled to play in Nashville again.
The thumping the boys in got in 2015 motivated them from the bus trip home, through the summer and into the 2016 season. Talking with some of the players prior to the rematch, I discovered they were not only not worried about playing the No. 1 team in the state with a 26game winning streak on the road, but they were actually confident of victory in spite of the predictions across the state of a second consecutive blowout loss to the Scrappers.
In the intervening time between the games, the Hawks with a diligent coaching staff, figured out why they lost that first matchup. They zeroed in on their weak points, fixed them, and thus were set to force their will on the unsuspecting Scrappers.
The game was a blowout victory with the Hawks scoring 50 by the third quarter with Nashville fans exiting the stadium long before the game’s end. That night in November 2016 was the finest game I have ever seen a high school team play. If the Hawks had not have been devastated in 2015, it might not have been possible for the victory to come as it did in 2016.
This past week was the Battle on the Ridge basketball tournament. Two highly ranked Little Rock teams were here along with the state’s third-ranked team in south Arkansas in Arkadelphia. Neosho was in the mix, a bigger Missouri school that had earlier defeated the Blackhawks this year.
With the court side tables full, I did my sports writing from the second row in the stands. It gave me the chance to speak with some Hawk fans who had some questions. They wanted to know why the Hawks were getting all those really good far off teams to come play when they could just invite our close neighbors and we would have a much better chance of winning the championship. Pea Ridge has never won the tournament in its five year existence.
I got the chance to explain what I thought was the rationale behind inviting the lineup of really good teams to come here. I told them it wasn’t solely about winning games that day or the next.
Coach Trent Loyd’s choice of invitees provided the Hawks with a very steep hill to climb to win a championship. It also gave the coach a chance to see what the Hawks’ weaknesses were.
In the semifinal loss to Arkadelphia, we had a 2-point lead with under 5 seconds left, but lost by 1. The refs helped out a lot, with a suspect call and lack of call that gave the Badgers two free throws with 1 second left, trailing by 1. They made them both and won the game.
Pea Ridge got down by 10 points early in the fourth quarter, put on a furious rally then took a 48-45 lead with 55 seconds left. Then lost it in the final 15 seconds. For the game, the Hawks shot seven free throws, making four. The Badgers shot only six, but made five. That one extra free throw was the final winning margin.
The Hawks were down 10-3 early in the first then fought back to grab a 29-26 lead with 2 minutes left in the half. The Badgers rebounded by scoring the last 5 points before intermission. Arkadelphia then expanded its lead to 8 by the end of the third. The Hawks displayed great character in coming back from adversity, digging out of holes, and this character will prove invaluable in the future.