Nothing to hang our heads about

On a chilly but bearable night, the McCook Bison had just taken the lead with little time left in the game in pursuit of their unprecedented third state championship in a row at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.

After swapping high fives with my son, Will, who was at the game with me, I pulled out my cell phone and called my other son, Michael, who's attending college in Arkansas. I told him what had happened and that I would stay on the line with him and give him a play by play as we counted down to victory. At the same time, Jim and Carol Lemon were on the phone in Denver, talking to their daughter and son-in-law in McCook who were watching the game on television. They were also doing a long distance play-by-play. Who knows how many others were doing the same thing. An incomplete pass, an injury time out, a completed pass over the middle. Pius was slowly inching down the field and our greatest fear was them getting into field goal range, since McCook was only two points ahead, due to a blocked extra point. But they weren't close enough yet and time was running out. Then the unbelievable happened.

I drove down to Lincoln on Saturday morning. It was hard to get gas in McCook because all the pumps were full with McCook cars filling up for the trip to Lincoln. I got to my son's house about 3 p.m. and we went down to Sandy's in downtown Lincoln for a pitcher of Elk Creek before going on to Embassy Suites where we were going to meet friends of mine from McCook for happy hour. We arrived at the Embassy a little after five and the dining and drinking area was almost full with McCook fans, most decked out in their Big Red McCook colors. Cheerleaders and students were walking around the hotel, occasionally doing a yell or leading a "Go Big Red" chant. Surprisingly, the Pius cheerleaders and yell squad showed up and held an impromptu pep rally right in the middle of happy hour and right in the middle of the McCook contingent. Several of us thought that was a pretty tacky thing for Embassy Suites to allow, since most of their rooms were rented to McCook people instead of Pius people, but most people were having too much fun to be very upset about it.

We stayed at the hotel until shortly before game time and then made our way to the stadium. As I entered, it was obvious that there were more people on the McCook side than on the Pius side, which is a great tribute to the McCook fans, athletes, and coaching staff. By the time we decided where we were going to sit (or actually stand, since hardly anyone sat down during the entire game), it was time for kickoff.

Without any question, this was one of the best high school football games I have ever seen. It was hard hitting, competitive, and exciting. You had the feeling almost from the very beginning that the game would be decided by a touchdown or less and one big play was probably going to win it (or lose it). That's exactly how it turned out.

The clock was ticking down inside 15 seconds to play when the Pius quarterback dropped back and spotted his wide receiver steps behind our defensive secondary. He threw a perfect pass, hit his receiver in stride and the receiver ran untouched into the end zone. What I said to Michael on my cell phone cannot be repeated in a family newspaper. Jim Lemon said his kids just hung up on he and his wife when the go-ahead touchdown was scored. There was literally an audible gasp on the McCook side of Memorial Field as the receiver caught the pass and scored.

The winning streak was over and the third state championship in a row had escaped our grasp. But to the everlasting credit of this McCook football team, there were few hung heads. In fact, our players wasted no time in seeking out players from the opposing team and congratulating them on their success. What a great example this was to younger kids who see these high school players as their idols, after the reprehensible conduct of some athletes in the Pistons pro basketball game and the Clemson-South Carolina football game. What a tremendous show of class by our young men, as heartbroken as they surely were.

After the game, a lot of McCook fans (at least 200 or so) ended up at Barry's, which has become sort of the watering hole of choice after state championship games. We stayed late, discussing and dissecting the game, but mostly talking about the great success this team has enjoyed over the past three years.

So, to the McCook Bison football team and its coaches, congratulations on a job well done. You played your heart out in each and every game and you won or lost with style, dignity, and grace. And I would be remiss here if I didn't remind all the McCook fans of the incredible coaching staff we're privileged to have to work with the young men of this community. Look back through the scores of our games played this year and compare the first half score with the final score. You will immediately see that we were a second half team almost all year long and much of that is because of the tremendous halftime adjustments made by this coaching staff. Coaches must have good athletes to win, but good athletes must have good coaches as well. McCook has them both.

Most of us who were at Barry's Saturday night after the game are already planning our return trip to the Championship game next year. One streak is over; it's time for a new one to begin.