As the dust has settled from the Clash of the Cats, I cannot help but still feel the sting of the outcome where our coaches and players fought hard but came up just a little short. I am not one to take losses well. I never have. As a man who has spent his whole life either playing or coaching football, I know for our coaches and players that there is a bitterness that comes with not emerging the victor that stays with you for days after the game has been decided. It’s tough, it really is.
But I also know that a team and community’s true character is not tested in victory, but rather in defeat. It is easy to be “classy” and to have “school pride” when everything is going well. It is easy to be the coach when your team is winning. It’s easy to wear the jersey when your team is always ahead on the scoreboard.
But losing reveals who we really are. And we lost. And what I saw from our students, our coaches, our players, and our community, was the definition of high character. It was inspiring.
When the last horn sounded and students and fans rushed the field, our players, coaches and cheerleaders, as well as Logan County’s, ignored the bedlam and respectfully lined up and shook hands first. Our kids hugged one-another in defeat and theirs in victory. There was no taunting, no throwing of helmets in anger, no harsh words, no issues in the stands, none of that. Logan celebrated with class and we took our medicine with class.
It was as explosive and tense an environment as there could be all game long, but in the end, we all remembered that we were members of the same community, and that this game was about kids and adults who had committed their time and effort to a great game, who had left it all out there, and who had done so with dignity and honor.
I truly believe that teams reflect the values of their coaches and comminutes. In both victory and defeat last Friday night, the true character of the Russellville/Logan County community was revealed. It was a character of respect, humility, pride, and perseverance.
My hat is tipped to our amazing coaches, especially our head coach, John Myers, for how hard we played and how gracious and strong our players were in defeat. I tip my hat to Logan County’s staff and players for their handling of victory and honoring the shaking of hands before celebrating with their folks. I tip my hat to our fans and community for packing the stands and rooting hard for their teams in ways that reflected the greatness that is high school sports. And finally, I tip my hat to our players and students for their class and character, even in the face of defeat.
As Teddy Roosevelt said in his famous speech “The Man in the Arena”, “…The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat…who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming…” so too did our coaches, fans, players, and community find ourselves in the midst of a shortcoming, but in that midst, it was revealed the steel that makes up the backbone of our community and what it really means to be a Russellville Panther.
It was a reminder of what makes our school what it is and what a tradition of high morals and values looks like. Thank you to all that were a part of that. We march on.