Finally ready to talk about it

I know it's been a few weeks since I last posted about the basketball team making the playoffs. I was coming off a high, beating the unbeatable Bennion in a true Cinderella matchup. That game was great, the win was sensational. That's why the way it all ended was so disappointing.

Let me begin by telling about Algie Brown. He was in our program as a 7th and 8th grader, a great kid, incredible stature(he could pass as a senior in high school, no, really he could), not a great shooter, but great defender, very athletic, on the verge of becoming great. Mark and I had fantasized about our lineup at the end of last season and beginning of this one. Then we found out Algie wasn't coming back; he was going to Churchill. There are so many rants I could go on about, with Skyline recruiting(yea that's what really happened, he is going to play football up there.) I could elucidate the whole east side vs. west side dilemma but I won't. I am only going to say that we would have been a truly special team with Algie, we might just have won it all, unfortunately that story will never be told, that dream never realized. And unfortunately he is the reason we lost, a kid that lives a few streets from our school beat us. The bitter irony of it all.

Had Algie beating us been the main story or how the game would have ended it wouldn't have been so bad, sucky, but not heart breaking, we lost by double digits, so three was no last second tip in by Algie to beat us. No this game will be forever remembered for one thing: our player and coach absolutely losing it.

In sports talk Bobby Knight throwing the chair, Woody Hayes punching a player, Jerry Sloan getting a T are all famous images we laugh about. I mean at the end of the day it's just a game. Sure you can get frustrated, even angry about losing, but you never want to go down in the annals of history like Bob Knight. Losing your cool in a game is one thing, losing your sanity is another. And that's what happened to David Greninger and Mark Mageras. Perhaps it was the fact we were losing and for the first time we knew the other team was better, that despite our best effort it wouldn't matter. Point, we held Churchill to 3, yes 3, third quarter points. Only problem they held us to 5. It could have been the mounting fouls; Tyler, George, and David were all in foul trouble and had to sit for a while. It could have been the fact we couldn't guard Algie at all; he killed us. There are so many things it was a combination of, but it wasn't the refs. We had foul trouble, but so did Churchill. All you can ever ask for is that a ref is consistent. If he is gonna make bad calls then he better do it both ways. If he is gonna call it tight then do it both ways. That is exactly what happened. So when George got his 4th it with about 5/6 minutes to go, it wasn't entirely unexpected, however, the results were.

Frustrated, George slammed the ball down and got a T. In jr high and high school a T, technical foul, is the same as a foul, so George reached his fifth foul and that was it. He was gone. David went off on the ref and got a T as well. Now here was the critical part, had this been it the game would have been disappointing but not downright ugly. Yea you guessed it, it got ugly, real ugly. I told Mark that David had to sit, he had just received a T and wouldn't shut up. Mark took him out to watch the 6 free throws, of which they only hit one. We were down by 9. We could comeback right, we'd done it against Brockbank, we were at home, they just missed 5 out of 6 free throws. It was concievable right? Wrong. George was gone and David was mentally gone. But I guess Mageras didn't think David was gone, so he put him back in. That's where this gets bad.

David is a hot head. He is competitive, but really goes after the officials. He should have been sitting. He wasn't ready to go play, he just wasn't. Plus you can't reward a player for berating an official and getting a T. They HAVE to sit for a while. So when David went back in, still hotheaded, frustrated that we were losing, and for the first time unable to do anything about it, I knew he would get another T and that would be it. So yeah, you guessed it, I was right. Not only did David get a T, he acted so poorly he got thrown out of the gym. Had it ended there it still would have been bearable, but it didn't.

I am not surprised David got thrown out. If we were placing bets at the start of the year on which player was most likely to be thrown out David would have 2:1 odds, Landon 1,000,000:1. Mageras would have been 100,000:1. So when Mageras lost it, it was weird. People use the word surreal too much, but this was really one such time it would have been appropriate. Mageras rarely shows emotion, that's partly why this was unlikely, strange, (use your own word to describe it). Mageras lost it. I can't really say it any other way. He went off on the ref for the rest of the game, shouting at him, saying things to crowd, and anyone that could hear. In front of a full crowd, the team, his wife and kid, and parents, he proceeded to lose his sanity. It was surreal, it was shocking, it was embarrasing. I couldn't believe what was happening, I just sat in utter disbelief. Mark was saying things like "This is the worst official in the league. He will never ref another game I coach." The other assistant Zach, who is 19, looked at me and said I thought the officiating was fine, I agreed. They were consistent. Both of us were shocked with Mageras. About the best way I can describe it is the Simpsons episode when Flanders loses his cool and ends up in counseling, that's what it was like. The most unlikely character losing his cool, and then losing it so badly that YOU felt embarrased.

We ended up getting creamed in the last four minutes. An embarrasing end to a great year. That's what was so bad. Churchill was better than we were. We should have lost with dignity and class, instead of looking like the biggest poor sports ever. I couldn't have been more disappointed. We should have been able to address David on getting kicked out, but how could we when our coach legitimized and supported his behavior. Now I know that Mark doesn't really feel that way, but that is what happened. I know Mark wouldn't support that kind of behavior, but by putting him back in the game and then acting like him, he did. It was a temporary moment of insanity, but it was ugly. And that's all anyone remembers. When Mark came to, he was apologetic and realized what he had done. He met with our principal and took responsibility for what he did. That was indeed admirable. He ended up getting a written warning over this whole event. It is true that one short moment can ruin you for life. This could have cost Mark his job, he almost went that far. Luckily it did not, that truly would have been unfortunate.

So finally I have spoken on the matter. Now I can get on with life and start posting again. I felt I couldn't until I had covered this matter. I have not written this to denigrate Mark, just to tell what happened. He and I are friends and he has done all in his power to correct the situation. But it still doesn't take the bitter taste out of my mouth. The NCAA tournament will end Monday night when Florida defeats Ohio State, in a rematch of the college football championship.(Yea that is a prediction 78-71 is my predicted score). Here is my point 64 teams began this tournament all of them had good seasons, some great, yet 63 teams will finish on a loss, only one team ends on a win. That is how sports goes, no matter how good you play, or how great the game is one team will lose and one team will win. You can lose with class and keep your head up and just know that on that day the other team was better. It happens, it happens all the time. That was the ultimate disappointment. Now everyone thinks Matheson is a bunch of poor sports, the east/west divide is greater, we couldn't address David's poor behavior, we ended a great season in a terrible way. And that's why it has taken me so long to talk about it; it's been that disappointing.