Past five weeks left lasting impressions

Bad roads, bad food and bad luck. Three things that could sum up my last five weeks of work.

That's why I have only had one column in that time, because I've been on the road or running around town every weekend covering something or another.

And the column I did write about Wayne Hogan doesn't actually count, because I had that thing written in my head the day after Don Holst was fired as the University of Montana men's basketball coach.

Sure, it took me some time to hammer out exactly what I wanted to say about Hogan and make sure everything could go in print. But I would much rather write about other things than barbecuing a man after he was fired.

Specifically, I wanted to write about wins.

Let's be real honest here. Fellow sporstwriter George Ferguson and I aren't supposed to be fans when we cover events. We are supposed to remain impartial and unbiased in our observation But then again, George and I are also supposed to be working on Sunday nights and not arguing for hours about which Grizzly football players I know, or why the North Carolina basketball team plays worse whenever he watches them play.

That being said, we want to see local teams win. It is much easier writing about wins than it is losses, especially season ending losses. Those are the worst. The interviews are tough and there is no other way to write about a team ending its season with a loss, because there is no next game, only next year. And that's for just a few.

There is nothing worse than seeing tears of agony stream down an athlete's face as they realize a chapter in their life has ended. I know because I've shed those tears myself.

Unfortunately in the last five weeks, I've seen seasons and careers come to an end in disappointing fashion.

It started with the State Wrestling tournament where I watched Jeff Hedges come within eight seconds of having a shot at three consecutive state wrestling titles, only to have it taken away before he could even understand what was going on.

The next weekend it was the boys and girls District 9C tournament. There was enough tears shed in both tournaments that the tourney sponsor should have been Kleenex. With only two teams advancing to the Northern C divisional in each, that left five boys and girls teams that saw their season end in Havre.

A week later, I got a slight reprieve as I watched the Big Sandy boys capture the Northern C Divisional in dominant fashion. The Pioneers looked unstoppable at the time, crushing Dutton-Brady in the championship.

The next weekend was the Central A Divisional girls basketball tournament in Havre. If covering sports has taught me one thing in the past five years, it's that when girls teams lose, no matter what the sport, there are tears from the players, the managers and the parents. I watched for two days as players' state tournament dreams ended in disappointment.

The next weekend my travels took me to Belgrade for the Class A state boys basketball tournament. It was there that I stood in agony as Cory Brothers' 30-foot three-point attempt came within millimeters of going in and giving the Ponies a rare state championship game berth.

A day later, with the help of four-wheel drive, I was in Billings, anxiously awaiting Big Sandy's culmination of a perfect season with Class C state championship Only it didn't come. The Pioneers played basketball that was uncharacteristic of the way they played all season and fell to Brockton. My heart and my gut tells me if those teams were to play five times, Big Sandy wins four.

The following Saturday, I was at home for once, to watch the Montana State University-Northern women's basketball team edge Great Falls in the opening round of the Frontier Conference playoffs. Two days later, I was in Butte watching a flat Skylight squad getting beat by UM-Western in the Frontier tournament semifinals.

I don't know exactly what happened to the Skylights in those two days, but I do know they just seemed a step slow on defense, and a second or two out of sync on offense. It wasn't that they played badly, it was just that Western played extremely well.

After a quick return trip home for three days and quick repack job, I was back in Butte watching the Northern men take on Westminster College in the men's semifinals. It was there that I saw something that I hadn't seen all season, a team slow down the Morinia brothers, as Westminster ended their stellar careers at Northern.

Let's see, that would make one trip to Great Falls, one to Belgrade, two to Billings and two to Butte for approximately 2,610 miles during which I saw about 1,000 deer - almost hitting about 10 - at least 15 bald eagles, enough antelope to know there are too many, a small herd of elk, three Hummer H2's with men having self-esteem issues driving and enough bad roads to last an for an entire year.

I also had the pleasure of staying at two different Best Westerns, which I still have all of the keycards for, slept on a couch of a buddy's house, which I will never do again, lost my keys, ate at Quizno's six different times, including three times in one trip, (you can't go wrong with turkey, ranch and swiss), ate at an IHOP, explained that IHOP stands for International House of Pancakes twice, drank approximately 537 bottles of Diet Coke, shamelessly raided the Hospitality Room of every tournament I was at and chewed enough Seasoned Spitz to turn my mouth into one giant cankersore

All of that traveling, all of those games, all of those matches, all of those tournaments, and I wrote about wins on only about five occasions. It sounds like complaining but it's not.

I may not have got to see our athletes celebrating.

But I saw something just as good. I saw the indomitable spirit of athletes who compete for pride with passion no matter what the circumstance.

Yes, it would have been easy for Jeff Hedges or the players on the Havre High basketball team to pack it after losing in the semifinals. But they didn't. Because that's not what the spirit of competition is about.

You go out there and fight, struggle and battle because the opportunity to compete at any level is something that doesn't last forever. In these instances, they rose to the challenge and ended their seasons with wins. Hardly a compensation for not winning it all, but a small reminder of what it means to be an athlete.

And part of what it means to be an athlete is to compete no matter the score.

At the end of both Northern games, the outcome was hardly in doubt with both the Lights and Skylights trailing by 20 points. But at no time did any of their players throw up their hands and give up. They fought and competed the entire time and played like they were down only a point when they were really losing by much more. People always talk about winning with class - there is something to be said about losing with it as well.

I also saw the fervor and excitement of postseason basketball at the 9C tournament. For most of the kids playing, those tournaments will be the pinnacle of their athletic careers. They won't be playing in college or in the pros. The camaraderie that comes with being part of a team is something that they will probably never experience again, but continue to search for in their years to come, which makes seeing it end so painful.

As for the Big Sandy boys, don't ever hang your head for a second. The Pioneers have lost a total of two games in football and basketball seasons. Unfortunately, those two losses came in the state championship games. Still, there are many athletes in the state of Montana who would settle for winning even half the games Big Sandy won this season.

Perhaps my biggest disappointment - and readers biggest complaint - is that we couldn't be everywhere. We missed out on the Havre Ice Hawks' improbable run at the state high school hockey tournament and the Chester girls rallying to qualify for the State C tourney. Only George got to watch the complete dominance of the Northern wrestlers. We would love to go everywhere and cover everything, but time and money doesn't always allow it.

Maybe I didn't get to write about as many wins as I wanted. But don't think for a second that doesn't make the athletes, coaches and teams I've watched in the past five weeks winners.

You don't need a scoreboard to tell you who the winners are.