State championships, winning are hard

Winning a state championship is hard.

 

Waseca County schools sent three teams to the state basketball tournament this season. 

The NRHEG girls, JWP boys and Waseca boys.

 

For the girls, they lost their Miss Basketball finalist to injury in the section finals. It took a heroic, memorable effort by the rest of the girls to win their section title in her absence. They also lost their star center to an ACL injury before the season. What could have been without injuries? 

 

For the third year in a row the Bluejays made the state tournament. They beat Belle Plaine in three straight section title games. In two of those, the son of my former elementary school principal Paul Sparby, was the point guard.

 

For the third year the Bluejays fell short. They may as well have been runners up again this year as they lost to the state champs in the first round. Leading most of the game it was Minnehaha Academy’s most difficult game in the tournament, in my opinion. If Waseca had just made a few more layups and rebounded better. It was the small things.

Players, people work so hard in life to put themselves in a position to be lucky. Luck wasn’t on our side. 

 

My friend, Steele County Times sports editor Johniee Phillips, was at that Waseca game they lost last week. He told me it was the greatest basketball game he has ever seen.

Thank you, Deron Russell and the entire team, for giving him and all of us many great memories. And, although it may have felt like a one man team at times, Deron would be the first to tell you it’s a team game. And his teammates would be right there reminding you he’s the best 2A basketball player in the state.

 

Finally, the Bulldogs.

 

An historic season ended because of a bad size mismatch. They played a physical, large Beaver Creek team fresh off a state football championship. The Bulldogs didn’t get the chance to run and gun up and down the court like they needed to. Too many fouls, missed shots and not enough rebounding. I told my dad they would make a run in the second half of the championship game. It fell short.

 

As Ken Benson told me, the state champion is the team that gets hot and stays that way for three consecutive games.

 

Winning a state championship is really difficult.

 

To qualify this many teams for state is a testament to a strong southern Minnesota culture. Thank you, players and coaches and officials, for representing our schools and communities so very well.