Life is full of firsts. Your first birthday, your first tooth, your first steps, your first day of school, your first trip to Disneyworld, your first time behind the wheel without mom or dad in the car, your first kiss, your first job, your first car, your first child. Recently the Providence girls’ basketball team gave us some new firsts: our first district title in basketball, our first regional victory, and our first win over Western Michigan Christian. Not bad for five days of work!
I am writing this on Thursday afternoon, five hours before our girls will take the court in our first ever regional final game. I do not plan on doing any rewriting tomorrow based on whether we win or lose tonight, for I can honestly say that I am just as proud of these girls today as I will ever be, no matter how much further they go in the tournament. For, in one of the greatest exhibitions of toughness and determination that I have ever seen, our girls showed in their win over WMC exactly what high school sports should be all about. They laughed and cried, but always together as a team. They fought through plenty of adversity, enough to make many teams quit before ever starting. They persevered through overtime after their opponent tied the score at the buzzer in potentially demoralizing fashion. And in the end they celebrated their victory with hugs and smiles, probably not fully understanding that one day they would look back on this season and smile again.
I love high school sports and you should too, even if you don’t really enjoy sports in general. For high school sports are more like life than perhaps anything else we do here, and the more kids participate, as players and as fans, the better prepared they will be for the life that lays ahead of them.. Go Storm!
Go STORM!
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