Losing With Class = Winning Big Time!

Last Friday night I had to supervise a Jr. High girls basketball game. Our team, Prairie Home, was hosting the Linn Lady Wildcats. It was the first time I'd seen our team play this season, and it was a very exciting game to watch.

Our team has seven players, but one has a broken foot. With six healthy players, our team built a 10 point lead. Slowly but surely, Linn started their comeback. With under 30 seconds to go, they were down two and had several chances to tie the game. They missed, and we had several chances to put the game out of reach.

Neither team could make that big shot that they needed to distance themselves.

Down by 2 points, Linn missed a 3 pointer at the buzzer that would have won the game. Our team won, BARELY! Everybody cheered. It was exciting stuff. Our girls were ecstatic, and I'm sure Linn's girls really were disappointed.

Later that evening, after everybody had cleared out of the gym, one of our employees (Mrs. Emma) asked if I had seen the classroom where Linn's girls had got dressed (yes, sometimes our visiting locker room is a classroom). I said no, and immediately worried that somebody had tore something up. It rarely happens, but after a close loss, sometimes a kid will do something stupid out of frustration.

Emma just smiled and said, "I'll send you a picture."

Not only did their players NOT tear anything up, they cleaned the room and left it exactly like they found it! Even better, they wrote this nice note on the white board in the classroom...

This is a great example of how you can bounce back from a disappointment to make today a "win." Sure, they lost on the scoreboard, but because of the way they reacted to the loss, they're winners.

So congratulations to the Linn players, coaches, parents, and their entire school district. You set a great example of how to react to a loss.

P.S. - You girls have a really good full court press :)

Thanks for reading. #JWT