Maybe winning isn't everything

Lake County has many reasons to be proud of their athletes this week. We had two teams compete at state tournaments and place. 

But perhaps more importantly, I think both teams showed just how classy they can be.

I’m sad that I missed the Polson boys’ game Saturday morning, but there’s a great video floating around the Internet that I hope you have seen. With seconds left, the Hardin coach put in a reserve player with a disability, much to the pleasure of the Hardin crowd. His teammates passed him the ball to shoot. He missed. But then Payton Lefthand did something amazing. He got the rebound and passed it to the Hardin player. He missed again. Then Jeremiah North Piegan got the rebound. Once again, he passed it to the Hardin player. He missed again and the buzzer went off, but I think it left the crowd in awe.

I had a few different people approach me about what happened. I talked to coach Randy Kelley on Monday to get the scoop. After the Pirates’ loss on Thursday, he said he explained to the boys that they were not there for just one game. The boys showed a lot of guts to battle their way back to the consolation match-up Saturday night. Kelley said it was great to play for third, but that what happened Saturday morning against Hardin was special. “I saw that the kid, Kyle, was jacked to go in, but it turned out even better,” he said, “Looking back on the tournament, that was probably the neatest experience.”

He said the guys are a great group. ‘They worked hard this year and learned how to become one as a team,” he said, “It was a fitting end to the year.”

After the game, he said Hardin’s Athletic Director said he was proud of what the Polson kids did. “It was a pretty cool situation,” Kelley said, “It really puts things in perspective about what is actually important.”

I don’t think you can get much classier than that. The Pirates showed that along with being one of the best teams in the state, they are also a good group of kids.

On Monday I was driving in my car and heard about it on 94.9 FM. The guy spoke about how nice it was to see the Polson kids do something like that. You can find one video of it on the Lake County Leader Facebook page.

Over in Great Falls, I watched the Arlee boys take their second state championship loss in four months. It was hard not to get a little emotional.

But just like when they lost to Chinook in the football championship, the players didn’t go straight to the locker room. They stayed accept hugs and hand shakes from their admirers.

The game itself never got rough, which I think we can all appreciate considering the excitement surrounding the game. Arlee hasn’t always been the most fun team to play against this year, but they represented their town well in the championship game, helping opposing players up and accepting defeat with grace in front of something like 5,500 fans.

I know that both teams were maybe a little disappointed with the outcome of their respective tournaments, but I think both teams can hold their heads high knowing they left it all on the court and represented themselves, their schools, and their communities well.