Living up to expectations

Turned out to be a helluva good week of hockey at the Coliseum. The Section semis were solidly played, including one OT game. The three section finals in the last two days were all one-goal affairs. Both games last night, pitting longtime rivals against each other, went overtime with the lower seed getting the winning goal.

Lot of tears (of joy and despair) all around.

In hindsight, however, there was something even more satisfying about the last two nights.

The current political discourse of "you are either with us or against society in general" has spilled into layers of athletics. However, I am pleased to say that this is still not the case in high school athletics.

Oh, there were plenty of hardnose cheering (and some borderline taunts) going back and forth from fans in the stands. But, when the games were over, people seemed to understand they were still watching kids play a game. The fans whose teams lost applauded their guys for a solid effort. The winners were, of course, overjoyed but respectful. But the most heartening sight of them all came from the players themselves.

There is an old hockey tradition that has spread to other sports. At the end of each Stanley Cup series, the teams line up and shake hands. This morphed into prep athletics years ago. The last two nights, however, there was more than handshaking. Each player in the title game -- win or lose -- gets a medal. And each time I called out a name, a player from the other side skated over for another handshake. In many cases, there were hugs and a few words of whispered support as well. In one case, two players from opposing schools paused to pose for a picture together before they left the ice. The player from the losing team managed a smile for the camera and seemed to have no problem putting his arm around the shoulder of a guy from a team that had just ripped his competitive heart out.

It was a gentle reminder of why we play games ... and why we enjoy watching others play them.

Look, I understand professional athletics is different. There, the players are trying to take bread off the other guy's table. So, you don't apologize for occasionally stepping over the line. That is the way it works in the non-athletic world as well.

But high school and college (at least in the D-III world where I work) should be different. It doesn't mean the games aren't taken seriously and are played at a top competitive level. (Indeed, White Bear Lake and Hill-Murray probably tossed more hard checks last night than I have seen all season combined.) But it does mean that those players know (better than some adults, as it turns out) the meaning of the word "perspective".

I imagine the losing teams are still hurting today. I know that next week, at the boys' hockey tournament, I will see many faces who will stare at the ice and wonder what might have been if that shot hadn't bounced off the post or if that damned puck hadn't deflected off the guy's skate and thus prevented a breakaway that could have ended the tie game. Those looks are part of why they play the game.

But I suspect (and, indeed, hope) that, for most of the guys I saw the last two nights, the sting of defeat will go away and what they will remember is the roar of the crowd and the thrill they must have felt when they the hit the ice to try to make the play that would send their team to the state tournament. I hope they will remember looking up and seeing the old Coliseum full.

The fact is that damn near every guy I see in the games I work will never get paid to play a sport. In many ways, however, they are more professional in their behavior than the guys who do.