State Champions, Heartbreak, and High School

Yesterday, I had the chance to watch my school's basketball team take on the Copper Hills Grizzlies (an all-too-familiar foe) in the Utah 5A state championship game. It was an exciting game, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The best part was when the final buzzer sounded, and it was truly official:

We were state champions!




And it was sweet! As a school, we were just so pumped and so happy and, for a minute, the cliques dissolved and we became what we should always be: a family. We were so overrun with joy and thrilled with the electricity of victory that we didn't care about social circles. For that moment, we were all friends, and it's a moment I will try to never forget.

So yeah, you could say I was pretty happy.

But yesterday, I discovered that along with utmost jubilation comes the inevitable heartbreak. While we were celebrating the win, the students and the players at Copper Hills were feeling the depths of frustration and sorrow and sadness and everything else that comes with such a hard loss.

And I hate that.

And maybe it's because I'm so familiar with Copper Hills. I know a few students there and I've attended several of their basketball games this season. So maybe this empathy comes from simply knowing a few of the people that were feeling so crushed. I don't know. I just couldn't help but feel bad for them.

There was one instance in particular that I will never be able to erase from my mind. There is a player at Copper Hills named Preston Sanchez. He is a very good player and was key in their run to the final. In the fourth quarter of the game, Preston fouled out. Like we always do, our student section started taunting and mocking him (which is silly, because he couldn't hear us anyway; Preston is deaf). As he walked to the bench, his coach stood and embraced him, and there was a collective gasp (I kid you not, it was literally audible) from our student section as we realized what that hug meant.

The thing about hugs is that they can mean so many different things. They can show affection, provide comfort, or give peace. The way you hug a friend you haven't seen in years is different than the way you hug a friend dealing with the loss of a loved one. This hug, however, was one of a kind.

In that moment, we realized that that hug meant that Preston's high school career was over. It meant that he had worked so hard and overcome so many obstacles only to fall short of a championship. And we knew that he was miserable beyond description as he embraced his coach on the way to the bench for the final time.

When the hug ended, we started our taunts again. Because that's who we are.

We're stupid high school kids who don't know when to stop or shut our mouths and we can't help but shove other people's losses and mistakes in their face.

Gosh, I hate teenagers sometimes.

Look, I'm not trying to claim any exemption. I cheered along with all the taunts. I know that some of the things I said during that game were not the most considerate things I could have said. So I'm not saying "Everyone else needs to grow up but I'm perfect". I'm saying that sometimes we need to all be respectful and it would be great if once in a while we could just be kind to the people below us.

And I'm not going to lie. I loved winning that game. Watching my team take home that championship was one of the coolest things I've been able to see in my entire high school experience. But I just felt so bad for the other team, who worked so hard and played so well and ended up with the consolation of a runners-up trophy. When the game ended, I looked at the players from Copper Hills. Most of them were crying. And I think that my heart broke a little bit for them. Unlike their sadness, though, my moment of mourning was soon drowned out by the feeling of cheer that was quickly spreading like a happy disease through my student section.

Maybe I just care too much, even when I shouldn't.

To the players and students of Copper Hills High:
I offer my most sincere congratulations on such an amazing season. You played incredibly and your achievements cannot be ignored. You really were phenomenal. I'm sorry that you lost, but the way you played your hearts out was absolutely astounding. I hope that the pain of this loss will quickly heal, and that there aren't any hard feelings between our schools (although I already know there are). Please don't replace your many victories with this one loss.
Sincerely,
Giancarlo Diotaiuti
PS your student section this season was seriously amazing. I had the chance to be a part of it a couple times, and man it was freaking sick. So congratulations on that too.

I don't know what else to say. I'm so so so happy we won. And I know that Copper Hills deserved to be there. But I can't really formulate my thoughts into words anymore so I'll end here with a few pictures. (All photography credit goes to the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News)













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