Underdog Thursday (& Friday), the time when favorites & underdogs collide according to our seeding process, is over. Final tally—Favorites - 31 wins , Underdogs – one. Only Homestead was able to don the cape of the sixties super hero with the floppy ears. I don’t take into consideration the #4 & 5 seed battles, too close to call either a favorite. It is a two day period when David & Goliath type battles take place all across the state. A day to show clips of Rocky, Hoosiers, Miracle and recite military clichés about courage & perseverance as the underdogs prepare to face what often seem like insurmountable odds. The underdog coaches search for schemes, systems and the motivational trigger to pull their teams even with the contenders. For most underdogs, it is their first and last playoff breath.
When it is all said and done eight teams will emerge as the true contenders and advance to Madison for the state tournament. Those eight will receive all the credit and praise worthy of their accomplishment. They will be recognized by their very appearance on the ice at the Alliant Energy Center. Eighty teams will sit and watch. Here is to the teams left behind, because without their valiant efforts there would be no elite eight.
As an underdog you grow accustomed to life in the shadows, like a vampire ducking the daylight. As the underdog challenge and adversity are your constant companions. I have never been unhappy with that long shot role. In fact it was part of the lure that brought me to a struggling East program eleven years ago. I have always been proud of that image. To me the underdog is like that mutt you rescued from the humane society; true, faithful and loving. The underdog has the courage and tenacity of old yeller and often in the end the same grim fate.
The dark horses, as we are also labeled, are faced with many unique challenges. Contenders seldom feel the sting of double-digit loses or the frustration of a season of single-digit wins. The elite teams seldom have to recruit a pond hockey player from the school hallway so they have enough bodies to field a team, or try to build a goaltender from a mere mortal skater. Year after year we head to seeding meetings with grand illusions only to exit with that familiar regional game. While the elite enjoy a few more days of practice, we go to battle on Tuesday, for the right to face seemingly insurmountable odds on one days rest.
The cards stacked against the underdogs seems to grow each year. The divide between the have and the have-nots is now enhanced by open enrollment. Players escape underdog programs in favor of traditional powers like inmates at a jail-break. Established powers reap the benefits of their winning traditions. Those programs still climbing the ladder are left to try and do more with less. It has left some schools scrambling to keep their hockey programs afloat and rendered others extinct.
With more and more regularity we are seeing the cancer of player movement that thrives in Minnesota creep into the Badger state. It is a practice that will continue to aid the contenders and steal from the underdogs. The promise of winning takes precedent over school loyalty and best friends.
In spite of the odds against them, underdogs are famously gracious in defeat. While we feel obligated to praise the victors for their success, we wish that more often that courtesy would be returned. It is almost as if the favorites believe that because we weren’t supposed to win, it makes losing easier. While the winners have an extended season as their reward, the underdogs have only words to console them.
Our players sit in that lockeroom as their season ends and search for answers. They hear the "life isn't always fair" speech one more time. All the pride we feel in them as coaches and the effort they just put forth can’t quite replace the stark reality of the scoreboard. They believed in that dream of going to Madison, even when most around them didn't, and now they must come to grips with the end of that dream. You did your best to convince them that heart could win out over talent, but find out it cannot win over both. You have to find the words, but you know there are none that can take away the sting of a season ending defeat. As a coach, each season steals a piece of you that can’t be replaced. Each fallen season an opportunity you’ll never get back.
As we gather in Madison for the state tournament, let’s remember the underdogs; the talented and dedicated coaches and players who will watch from the stands. There is often a very fine line, or three overtimes and two penalty shots that narrowly separate the winners from the losers. A thirty-five save effort by Pacelli’s Brady Huettner and fifty-six by GB United’s Will Griswold were spectacular, but not enough.
Like a good poker player, the underdog lives by the reality that the best hand doesn’t always win. We fight talent with work ethic, superstars with teamwork and sheer numbers with heart and guts. Unfortunately for the underdogs character and heart can’t be measured on a scoreboard.
The 31-1 record of the favorites and an average margin of victory of four goals provide more proof of the growing divide between the state’s top programs and everybody else. The voice for a two tier state tournament gets louder. But the proposed WIAA version of two four team tournaments seems more like a step backward than one forward.
One tier or two, when February comes, never fear…the underdogs will always be here!
