Being A Real Winner!

At the time of this article the Dupo Boys Varsity Basketball team is 4-17, 0-8 in the conference.  The Dupo Girls Varsity Basketball team is 4-14, 0-10 in the conference.  Both obviously losing records and unfortunately something that Dupo basketball fans have become accustomed to in recent years.  So how does someone dare to call those involved with these teams winners?  Because winning and being a winner is not always tied to the score or the outcome.

The Super Bowl is this coming Sunday and the trophy that will be given to the winner is named after one of football’s greatest coaches Vince Lombardi.  The five-time NFL Champion coach and two-time Super Bowl Champion coach is not only revered as one of the game’s greatest minds but also as one of it’s greatest motivators.  Lombardi once told his team the Green Bay Packers, “We will strive for perfection in everything that we do.  Not that perfection may be obtained, but that we may find excellence in the process.”  Dupo’s varsity basketball team’s records are obviously not perfect.  However, for one night in January, the boys and girls varsity teams found excellence.

On Friday January 15^th, the Dupo varsity boys and girls basketball teams traveled to Evansville, Illinois to face the Christ Our Savior Lutheran High School varsity squads.  COSLHS is a fledgling program at a tiny school in a very small town in southern Illinois.  The boys and girls teams have struggled with having enough players to field a team at times. Neither team has had enough players to conduct scrimmages in preparation for their opponents.  While the Dupo Tigers haven’t been world-beaters this year, both the boys and girls teams were talented and experienced enough to make the outcome a no brainer.

Accompanying this article is a letter from a parent of a COSLHS student.  In it you will see that our boys and girls varsity basketball squads and their coaches represented our schools and our town very well.  They played the game that night but they didn’t let the competitive aspects of the game keep them from seeing some more important things. That helping others is not just a good thing; it’s a great thing.  And that sportsmanship is more than just a handshake after a game, it’s understanding what it’s like to be on that side of the issue and act accordingly. 

I had said to a Dupo coach just this week that I hoped to see our program do what’s necessary to elevate the ‘class’ of our program.  This is a big step in that direction.  Congratulations to the Dupo Tiger  boys and girls varsity basketball teams and their coaches, real winners!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Copyright © 2010 Barnabas Grupo, Inc./Community Times. All rights reserved.

Letter from a parent of a COSLHS student. 

I wanted to pass on my thanks to your Basketball coaches for a great game. 
 
I am a parent of one of the players for Christ Our Savior Lutheran High School and this email is in reference to the game that was played at Evansville a couple of weeks ago.
COSLHS does not have the talent and the student population base that would support a basketball program. Yet the school struggles along with their program in the hope of greater things to come.
 
Your basketball coaches could easily have taken advantage of the weakness of the opposition.  However, your coaches allowed their bench players plenty of opportunity to work in various combinations.  This was of advantage to the your players to have the opportunity to not only have playing time but to work together as a team of 10 to 12 players and not just 5 starters with one or two coming off the bench. Dupo could easily have won the game by more than 30 points.
However, your coaches allowed the boys to play a scrappy and interesting game for all 4 quarters.
 
I also greatly appreciate the time that your girls coach took to wrap up the ankle of one of our injured players. Everyone in the gym could see that your coaches care not only for their own players but also for all young people.

Please pass my gratitude on to your coaching staff.  I look forward to the next time our teams meet on the court.

Royal B.