The best thing about sports is also the worst thing about sports – only one team can win any game. This time of year, high school and college teams understand that being on the wrong end of the score means there won’t be another game tomorrow. No more practices. No more road trips. No more … each other. In a perfect world, every team would win their last game. But I was reminded last weekend that sports only gives you an opportunity to succeed. It makes no promises, and there are no guarantees. Take for instance, Saturday night’s boys basketball sectional championship game at North Side Gym in Elkhart. Warsaw’s Kyle Mangas drove the ball 70 feet of the 84 stretched out across the floor of the famed arena. With three Elkhart Central Blue Blazers chasing after him and another running at him as time ticked down through the final seconds of the game, Mangas lofted the ball over a leaping Cornell Conner, off the backboard and into history. After making the free throw that followed and stealing the desperation Hail Mary pass to secure the 23rd victory in 24 games for the Tigers, the student section ran past the noble efforts of Principal Troy Akers and Athletic Director Dave Anson, who were trying to keep them off the court until the appropriate moment. Joy will do that to you sometimes. But Tiger fans have seen this a lot from the junior guard lately. Mangas hit the three-pointer with five seconds left that tied the game at Northrop as part of the record-setting 20-game season-opening win streak. He also hit another trey with 40 seconds left that tied the Carmel game, and he hit the game-winning shot (another three-point play) in the final minute at Carroll. When it happens that often, you get a nickname, and “Cardiac Kyle” did it again Saturday night. There is a line that gets used by Class 4A coaches, and they aren’t really wrong: “When you win a 4A sectional, it’s like winning a regional in the single-class system.” Let’s assume that’s true. Even with the tremendous season the Tigers have had, they now are playing with house money. Any further advancement, while a goal and a dream and a hope and a real possibility, can’t really be expected … right? It’s been a special season played by a special group of guys, and what happens from here determines just how special it will be. Contrast that to the weekend of another one of Warsaw’s favorite sons – Nic Moore. Moore transferred to Southern Methodist University in Dallas from Illinois State after his freshman year, and it seemed to work out pretty well. Moore was named conference player of the year last season and got his team into the NCAA tournament, where they lost in controversy in their first game. But it set up the hope that the current season would be better, and would lead to an even longer run into the Madness. It was shaping up to be that way, until September. In September, the NCAA handed down sanctions against SMU that included the suspension of coach Larry Brown for 30 percent of the team’s season and a ban on postseason play. The Mustangs would have to sit out “the big dance.” They had two choices: play it out or play it right. They chose the latter. They went unbeaten through the pre-conference season and needed to win Sunday in Cincinnati to get at least a share of the conference title. That would have been a tremendous achievement considering the bombshell that was dropped on them during their preseason conditioning. After an emotional sendoff for Moore and the SMU seniors at Moody Coliseum on Thursday in a 26-point win over UConn, they had all of the momentum heading into what they knew would be their last game of the season. In a perfect world, they would go into Cincinnati and win, and then walk off into the sunset of sports together. But remember, sports doesn’t offer you guarantees, only opportunities. SMU lost Sunday and didn’t look very good doing it. Their season ended. No chance at redemption. No happy ending. That may seem harsh, but that’s what sports is. For every happy ending there is a “what if.” For every joyous celebration there are tears of pain. And that’s the way it should be. It’s what adds to the drama of the moment. It’s what made the collective heart of over 4,000 people stop in mid-beat with a ball in the air that could win the game Saturday. It’s what makes us scoot up to the front of our chairs on 4th-and-goal from the 1-yard line. It’s what makes us peer through our fingers on a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded in the ninth inning. It’s what makes sports …. sports! It’s what makes you appreciate when you get a happy ending.
