Champions Again

Pictures from the Dome

While I wasn't present to witness the feat, Webb City has again been crowned champions of Missouri Class 4A football. The talk has been the emergence of the Cardinal defense in the last 2 games of the playoffs - and rightfully so. The defense was masterful in an inspired smothering of Lee's Summit West in the semi-finals, then backed it up by pitching a shutout in the finals. For a defense that had some trouble early in the season shutting down opponents (at least to the satisfaction of the rarely satisfied WC faithful).

With 7 state titles in football to go with 2 in baseball in the last 2 years, at least 1 in softball and 1 in basketball that I am aware of (there are likely others, but I'm fairly new to the area) there is no question that WC athletic programs have figured out what it takes to win, what it takes to be champions. Whether people like it or not, success breeds success. Programs that win find ways to keep winning. In college sports where winning leads to better recruiting and more financial support (which tends to lead to more winning) the connection between success and repeated success is fairly easy to understand. High school is different. Talent pools are limited to the district lines - and I'm not even sure who draws those. You have to tip your cap to a school district that can find ways to inspire athletes and acheive when there is no real liklihood that they have greater natural talent than many of the teams they'll play. (And for the record WC has a very solid academic record as well, accredited with distinction 7 of the last 8 years, my wife will want that mentioned.)

I'm sure that it annoys many residents of other area communities to watch WC hoist another title, perhaps if I had allegience to another area school I'd feel the same way. Here's my take - appreciate the courage and effort of this most recent group of champions from WC - i.e. don't hate the player(s), hate the game. I've watched 4 seasons of WC football now and I'm not convinced this is the most talented group I've seen play. That's no slam on the 2006 team, but they followed some really talented teams (none of whom finished with a win in St. Louis). I wouldn't even say this group wanted it more. I've yet to see a WC football team take the field that wasn't hungry to win. I would say that this group managed to find ways to get things done that the previous groups didn't. Sometimes that's just the way it goes. Congrats to the 2006 WC Cardinals, you finished your quest and are deserving champions.

One side note - and I'm not sure if my wife will allow me to post this or not - I hope that the 2004 WC season can now be laid to rest. The state finals that year were a bitter ending to a great, great season by a very, very talented team. I have heard comments made in the 2 years since then that I find unfortunate. That group of Cards came up just short in a thrilling OT game. I think they were the better team in that matchup, but not that night. Some seem to think that losing in the finals is somehow a disgrace and more distasteful than not making it there. Perhaps as an outsider I am not capable of understanding. No one talks negatively about the 2005 squad - also very talented, but taken out by eventual chamion Camdenton in the quarterfinals - so why treat 2004 like it was an embarrassment? I know several of the players from that squad - I'm related to a couple by marriage and was unofficially adopted by the parents of another - and they played their guts out that night. I can understand their (the players from that team) aversion to even talking about that season or their loss to Clayton. My hope is that now that another team has been crowned champions the 2004 squad can be remembered as the winners they were. And I hope that in time even the players on that team can see past the bitter ending to the success they had that season. Having experienced a 13-0 record and #1 ranking go up in smoke in a state final game my junior year I understand the difficulty there in. But 10 years later I look back at that season a little differently than I did at the time or even a couple of years later.