Day 223

Fresh Start_223: Redemption

February 22^nd, 1980 or as many people in this country would put it, “The Miracle on Ice.” For those not alive for the 1980 Winter Olympics which has hosted by the United States in Lake Placid New York. The game was the United States National Hockey team against the Soviet Union (Russia) National Hockey team. This was during the height of the Cold War, and was one of the single greatest games to have ever been played. The reason behind it was the Soviet Union had a team that had multiple professional hockey players that were big name players in the NHL. On the other side, the United States were a group of mostly amateur players that were minor league hockey players or college players. The call by ABC’s Al Michael “Do you believe in miracles?!” call after the 4-3 major upset can ring through sports fans heads to tell their kid. “The Miracle on Ice” is a classic story that fathers tell their sons, like an old folk story that the Native Americans passed down through their generations.

The thing about a good story is, it can stand the test of time. The ones that got past down from generation to generation, the ones your grandfather told you when you were young. The classic of a hero overcoming adversity to get the coveted prize at the end. Those same stories can be found in sports, in all different shapes and sizes. With that, sports are just better to enjoy and sit back if they is a good story behind the individual or team. Like my dad use to say “nothing beats a good underdog.”

Being an underdog is the preferable side to be on in sports. The people will route for the 30-1 horse, the 13 seed in the NCAA Tournament, or the 8^th seed in a major sport playoff race. There is something about routing for the underdog in sports that makes it feel closer to home. The chip on the shoulder of the underdog is something that cannot be matched by the expectation of the favorite.

With the favorite, usually there is experience involved that the underdog does not have. Those favorites are the been there, done that type of people. The people that are portrayed as superior. It has been said before that sports are like an opera and a chess game at the same time. The beauty of a well-played game combined with the mental aspect of being a step or two ahead of your opponent.

The same can be said about the Cobleskill Fighting Tigers Swim Team. The Tigers are a Division III swim team that has one hell of an interesting story. Coming off a Championship season in 2014-15, the teams’ head coach left for another job. With a small amount of returning students, a decent sized recruiting class, and no coach the team was stuck in a whole. Even with being the defending champs, the school had a sense of an underdog in them. The new coach, Chris Brown, would have to come in maintain and establish a winning culture as a first-time head coach. He would have to take over the program and put up a fighting chance with mostly a new group of freshman.

Despite all of that going against the Tigers, they would pull off an undefeated season in Conference, going into the Championship Meet with confidence that a back to back run could be possible. After a hard fought first two days of the meet, it all came down to the final night—the finals of Sunday. The Tigers were in a close race with Wells College and it depended on how well the relays would do at the end of the meet. After splitting the relays nicely placing 1^st and 7^th but falling short in events like the 200 breaststroke and 200 backstroke. There was also a notable tie in the 50 freestyle were Jordan Johnson of Wells College and Anthony McGorsik of Cobleskill tied with a time of 23.38. If those races went the Tigers way, the meet would have changed and it would have favored the Tigers. In the end the Fighting Tigers would lose by an extremely narrow margin of only two points.

With a crushing defeat like that, the Tigers were on a mission to bring back the North Eastern Athletic Conference title. With very few returning students yet again, Coach Brown would have to recruit to get the team back on top. After having yet another winning season, where they again went undefeated in the conference the Tigers were set to make another title run. With the odds in their favor, the Tigers dominated Championship weekend winning by over 200 points and reclaiming the championship. Three of the returning students that went through both the crushing agony of a two-point loss, and the exhilaration of a 200-point victory had some colorful reactions to the past two years. With that, Coach Brown said the following about his teams win. "I think this was a great accomplishment for our guys; they clearly were the fastest team in the water this weekend. Being this was our second title in the last three years and coming after last year's heartbreaking finish, I'm extremely proud of our team and what we were able to accomplish  

Sophomores Mick Fryer and Sam Datri, as well as Junior Anthony McGorsik, I got a sense of what it was like going from season to season. “I took away the necessary ambition to win this year” Datri said, adding “I work very hard fueled by emotion.” Datri had a successful personal 2015-16 campaign—winning the North Eastern Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year. So, with that on the shoulders of Datri, you can imagine how hard the young man worked.  Fryer would go on to say “I appreciated the time that I had in the water, I really didn’t take it for granted…sharing it with this group of guys means the most.” That quote exemplifies the demeaner of the team and the focus that they had going into this season.

The bond and the chemistry of the team would be showcased in a quote from the team’s leader Junior Anthony McGorsik: “the bond was the strongest I felt in any individual sport ever!” When asked about how it felt to lift that trophy after the uphill battled Fryer said “it felt incredible,” with Datri adding “It feels exactly how I dreamt it to… amazing,” and McGorsik ending it will “ This is my second time winning the championship  and I will openly say nothing will top the feeling of raising the trophy and bringing it back to the boys…We had finished the job and left everyone who doubted us speechless, we carried ourselves tall and proud—letting our actions speak louder than words.” Asking him to elaborate the Junior would go on to say “I felt like we weren’t there just to swim our own races, we were there to push each other to our limits and fight as a whole.”

The feeling of a champion is unmatched by anything in sports, it’s why you play the game. In the wise words of New York Jets coach Herm Edwards “you play to win the game!” And win was exactly what the Tigers did. That last quote from McGorsik sticks with me, as it should you, because when a group wants it more for the guy/girl standing next to them, that’s when it comes together and the magic happens. Sports is about fun and the friendships you gain while playing. Regardless of the favorite or underdog, the bonds created is what stands the test of time. And, that’s something the three Tigers have and something that can be worked toward in everyday life, because after all sports is an opera.

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