Mike Vukovcan When you reach a certain level of athletics, let’s be honest, you want to win.
No one likes to lose and as a wise man from Hopewell always reminds me, ‘Winning Is Fun’.
Wins have been hard to come by as of late for the Hopewell boy’s 7th and 8th grade basketball team.
This afternoon those two teams traveled to Avonworth for their next to last game of the season and both teams came up on the short end of the scoreboard.
Instead of giving you a game recap like I normally do, I wanted to change things up and come at it with a different perspective. Something that is more important than plays from a game and that’s something that will hopefully serve these kids well down the road.
As I was watching both of these games, something really stood out to me and it’s something that frankly has been a pattern all season.
No matter the situation, no matter the circumstances of their roster for that particular game, no matter the skill level of their opposition, the kids on both these Hopewell teams don’t quit and they continue to battle until the final buzzer.
Today against Avonworth was a perfect example of this.
Let’s start with the 7th grade team, which has been struggling as of late. After trailing by 2 at halftime, the Vikings had a rough 3rd quarter and trailed by as many as 15 or 17 points midway through the 3rd quarter.
With the way things have gone lately, it could have been very easy for them to give up or not have the same compete level as they did at the start of the game.
To their credit, that wasn’t the case, and they continued to play hard and the momentum started to change.
Before you know it, after trailing by a ton, Hopewell trailed by just 4 points with less than 2 minutes left in the game.
Unfortunately, the deficit was too large to overcome, and they ended up losing by 5 points. Despite the loss, many people in that gym, including the Avonworth, fans were impressed with the fight in this Hopewell 7th grade team.
When recapping the 8th grade game, it was different in terms of closeness of the final score but not in the compete level of the players.
The 8th grade team has gone up against some talented teams this season from Montour, Moon, West Allegheny, Eden Chrisitan and today against Avonworth. Most games, this team is outmatched in terms of talent level and particularly in the size department but to their credit, every player on that roster scraps and battles. I mean every player.
That might not sound like anything major to some people but trust me it is.
Unlike some other sports, you can’t fake effort in basketball. If you’re dogging it or going through the motions, it’s very easy to spot that. That doesn’t happen with this team.
Despite trailing by large deficits in many of the games this season, this team fights you for 24 minutes That’s a credit to them for having pride and wanting to do well and wanting to do better.
At points of this game and others when trailing big, players are still encouraging each other after making a positive play, kids are diving on the floor for loose balls, kids are diving into a pile to try and get a jump ball called.
If the buy in wasn’t there from the players, these types of things wouldn’t be happening. But they are because the kids on both these teams have character and play with pride.
Wherever that comes from, whether it’s a personal pride, whether it’s playing hard to represent Hopewell, whether it comes from home or from a different sport that they compete in. Whatever the case, that’s an impressive quality and frankly, in the long run that’s more important than the result of today’s games.
Keep competing guys and giving the effort that you’ve given all season and the before long, the result on the scoreboard will change.
