Blackburn: Winter sports thrill ride ends in heartache
Do it long enough, you learn to take the good with the bad with this job in the same frame of mind.
Every event has a winner and loser, and often times those defeats leave scars for even the most leather-skinned among us.
That all but described this winter sports season, one I'd consider a great one by most standards. But it was equally bittersweet.
It seemed every big basketball game during the regular season was decided in the final minute, which is like oxygen for the writers and photographers who live off this sort of excitement. The better the game, the better the content — we all win.
To say this season provided us with plenty of storylines wouldn't do it justice. There were enough fights to the finish in basketball alone to fill a cart full of notebooks, as a few trips through the MVL-Big School Division can attest.
Maysville and Tri-Valley twice played before near-packed houses in their home-and-home matchups, with games that proved worthy of the crowd. The Panthers’ road clash with unbeaten Malvern was their equal, just like the Scotties’ road crossover was at New Lex. Those might have been the best boys games all season.
These are a few. Fans across the area were blessed with good boys and girls basketball, which made this job somewhere between exhilarating and exhausting.
And that was just the regular season.
There is something about win-or-go-home where things change. It’s not coincidental that the best stories (and photos) are a most always a byproduct of pure emotion, when it’s all hanging in the balance.
Sometimes it’s a thrill ride, like four MVL boys teams that played for district titles, as John Glenn, Maysville, New Lex and Tri-Valley did in March. Or Tri-Valley's girls taking down Newark in a Division I district semifinal.
Other times it’s a Red Wing to the head, like Sheridan’s district final loss at the buzzer to unbeaten Chillicothe Unioto, a game the Generals led by 15 midway through the third quarter. It was an undeserving end to one of the best coaching jobs that J.D. Walters has produced in an illustrious career.
It was a precursor of things to come.
New Lex's boys took fans on the gravel road during a spirited tourney run, to no fault of its own, thanks to the archaic voting practices of the Southeast District.
Coach Jeremy Duerr's Panthers needed fourth-quarter comebacks at home against under-seeded Jackson and Ironton just to reach the district. It then needed the grip of a bricklayer to survive top-seeded Washington Court House for its first district final berth in a quarter-century.
A day later, their Big School brethren joined them in the East District finals. Maysville and Tri-Valley, in dominant fashion, were left standing.
A week later they were all gone.
New Lex’s hot shooting hit a roadblock in The Convo against Fairfield Union; Maysville and Tri-Valley saw their shot at a rubber match for a berth in the state tournament foiled by regional losses four days later.
Maysville was outplayed by a bigger, better Columbus Ready team that remains unbeaten and will likely secure a state championship this weekend in Division II. Tri-Valley failed to preserve a slim lead against Fairfield Union in their semifinal, thanks to shaky free-throw shooting in the closing minutes.
It epitomized the fleeting nature of the postseason. One day you're taking off work to pack The Convo already eyeing watering holes in Columbus, the next you're in stunned silence reminiscing about the enjoyment the season provided.
These feelings weren't relegated to the hardwood.
It was only fitting that the final event of the year was New Lexington heavyweight Zane Pletcher, whose championship match at the Division II state meet against Circleville's Trent Fulgham required double overtime.
Pletcher was roughly seven seconds from riding Fulgham out in overtime to complete his final mission. Instead, the bruising Fulgham escaped, then held Pletcher down in the second overtime to earn the emotional victory.
Just like that it was over. It signified the overall heartbreak of the season.
In the big picture, that two New Lex wrestlers reached the state finals — no MVL team had ever done that previously — as a standalone will always have historic relevance. Coach David Ratliff's squad, which had four state qualifiers and placed three, set a new bar.
But when considering that Pletcher and 106-pounder Ethan Burkhart had more than fighter's chances to win those finals matches, it left those watching what could have been.
Then there was the case of Drew Lincicome.
The star senior established a new standard for Philo wrestling, leaving with more than 10 program records, including most career and single-season wins and most takedowns. When he defeated third-ranked Kaiden Haines, of Minerva, twice in two weeks, he officially entered the state title conversation.
It was a talk he never got to finish, due to a broken ankle suffered in the quarterfinals. He was well on his way to another dominant win when the proverbial rug got pulled from beneath him in a way no athlete should endure.
As America's poet Sturgill Simpson once said, "life ain't fair and the world is mean." He will never make a truer statement. Drew will spend many days wondering where he stood in the pantheon, though no one here will ever question it.
A few months from now, our baseball, softball and track teams will take their aim at the top. Per usual, we'll have our share of headline makers, some better than others.
Here's hoping the end of that story is a little happier.
sblackbu@gannett.com; Twitter: @SamBlackburnTR
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Sam Blackburn: Winter sports thrill ride ends in heartache
