Friday, November 10, 2000
Holmes gets up after 81-0 knockout
Winning is easy. The least of us manage it occasionally, if only by accident. Losing is hard. Losing is admitting you're not good enough. Losing takes guts.
After his team lost 81-0 to Highlands three weeks ago, Holmes coach John Vander Meer stood in the home locker room and said, “If you don't learn anything from this, it's just a loss.”
The Holmes players were silent. They heard Vander Meer but didn't see him. That would have required looking up. After 81-0, no one did. Sixty sets of eyes stared at the floor.
Said Vander Meer: “We're responsible for us, not Highlands. Not (Highlands coach) Dale Mueller. Focus on winning next week.”
Highlands led Holmes 53-0 at halftime. Early in the third quarter, the teams agreed to keep the clock running. Highlands emptied its bench and stopped throwing passes. A Holmes player hurt his shoulder, prompting a nine-minute delay as the clock ran.
Still, 81-0.
We're still talking about it. It won't die, because it speaks to more than the score.
Play, don't patronize
High school sports are a great teacher of plain truths: The rewards of hard work. The satisfaction of persistence. Fairness, compassion, the right way to win and lose.
This is what we believe, and let's hope we're right. Because without the truths, what's the point?
You could be mad at Mueller and his team for scoring 10 touchdowns when one would have done. The Bluebirds didn't kick sand in the Bulldogs' faces; they dumped the whole beach. What does that say about sportsmanship?
You also could wonder how Holmes, 7-1 coming into the game, winner of seven straight, could fall so easily. What was Mueller to do? How do you tell your players not to play hard?
I say Highlands did Holmes a favor by continuing to play hard, even as the score became grotesque. I'd rather be blown out than patronized. It's not as embarrassing.
Bouncing back
Mueller tells a story about his eighth-grade son's basketball team. It got trounced recently, by a squad of older, city kids. At one point, the score was 50-2. “Those kids never let up,” Mueller said. “They didn't laugh at my son's team. They respected them by playing hard. When my son got home, his self respect wasn't devastated. He said, "Those guys are good.' It gave him something to strive for.”
It's not what happens to you that matters. It's what you do about it. That's another lesson we believe sports teaches. If you're knocked down, get up. The Saturday after 81-0, Vander Meer met with his players and told them to forget Friday.
“You just get back at it,” he said. “You just come out and work. That's what you do. I don't know, maybe it's just ingrained in you. What happens the next Friday night is more important than what happened the last Friday night.”
Losing is hard. But nothing beats losing for revealing character. “You learn more by losing than by winning,” Vander Meer said.
It's worth noting Holmes has come back from that game to win its last two. It plays at Harrison County tonight, the winner moving to the district finals.
“It says a lot for our kids,” Vander Meer said. “I hope that's what they're remembered for.”
They'll remember it themselves. That's what matters.
Paul Daugherty welcomes comments at 768-8454.
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DAUGHERTY: Holmes gets up after 81-0 knockout 
