Storybook endings are rare in sports
Everyone who plays high school sports wants that final moment of their high school athletics career to be a good one. To go out with a heroic moment. The problem is that rarely happens.
Spring sports is the best example of this. Tuesday’s softball regional saw Linton being overpowered by North Posey. The Lady Miners drove 90 minutes to and 90 minutes back to lose 8-0 in front of a crowd that was 80 percent North Posey fans.
In the middle of it all was Linton senior Sydney Lockhart. Lockhart has spent the years of K-12 getting better at softball. She lives close enough to the high school she could probably hit a school window with a swing of her bat from her front yard. Tuesday, however, her final moment in a Linton uniform came when she was hit by a pitch in the head. I am sure having to perform a concussion test while your team is down 8-0 in the seventh inning is not what she had in mind to exit her time as a Linton Miner.
To her credit, Lockhart was able to talk about her season after the game. Most high school athletes would not but she had an excellent perspective on her time at Linton.
“I’m happy we made it this far,” Lockhart said. “I wanted to do it for years. We finally did so it feels good to do that. I’m just happy we got here. We tried. We made it further than we did in years before and that’s what matters.”
Lockhart is a reminder that the storybook ending is rare but also, not a big deal if you don’t get one. Her teammate, senior Jaylee Hayes, won two state championships playing basketball at Linton. Her final moment in a Linton uniform was not being able to get a hit against North Posey’s ace pitcher. Guess what, that’s perfectly fine.
Sports magnifies the present and forgets the past with every game and every play. A year ago, Josh Pyne played his final game in a Linton uniform and struck out against the North Posey baseball team in the regional as Linton lost. Now, he is leading the Indiana University baseball team as a freshman.
Monday, saw Bloomfield basketball player Baylin Graf playing his last sport as student at Bloomfield on the baseball team. He struck out against WRV as Bloomfield lost. For Graf, who should have received more votes for the Indiana All-Star team, it was probably the first time he had lost to WRV in any sport. He’ll be fine.
Shakamak’s baseball team advanced to state a year ago with a team loaded with seven seniors. In the state finals, none of those seven recorded a hit as the Lakers lost. They are all fine too.
The point is for every state champion player that goes out on top, there are 1,000 kids like Lockhart who did not. The benefit of sports though is she will go to Goshen College after the summer and be stronger for it. What was different about Lockhart though is she had the maturity to understand exactly that immediately after the game. That rarely is the case for high school seniors. As a result, her storybook ending is still being written.
Nathan Pace is the Sports Editor of the Greene County Daily World and can be reached at npace@gcdailyworld.com. His “Low Budget Sports Show” airs weekly on Facebook Live.
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