Talk about pressure

As I sit in front of my computer this Wednesday morning, removing last week’s news in perpetration for this week’s, I decided to leave the giant picture box on page 1A -- the one which housed the Saco-Whitewater-Hinsdale second place basketball squad -- because I am just that confident that it will be replaced with a picture of the Malta M-ettes hoisting some Class B hardware.

No pressure ladies...yeah right.

It has been a forgone conclusion that anything short of a State Championship for the M-ettes at the Class B Championship in Great Falls this weekend would be a disappointment to many folks, none more so than the M-ettes themselves.

Now I know that some readers feel that sports have too much attention paid to them in the pages of this paper and I know that because it is the case at any of the newspapers I have I ever worked at.

People will say, “why don’t you pay more attention to the math and science students?”

To them I would firstly point them to page 5B of this week’s paper (and 4B in last week’s) as there are science fair pictures galore of the Dodson students (and last week it was Malta’s children aplenty.)

The second thing I would say to the sports naysayers is, “have you ever tried covering a math tournament?” Ugh, it isn’t pretty.

That isn’t to say that scholastics isn’t an important thing. In fact it is quite the opposite (I wish, at this point, I would have paid a little more attention in grammar class and a little less time with my nose in baseball box scores in my youth, but what’s done is done. Selah.) Being a well rounded student brings about well rounded adults and both academies and sports can take their fare of credit for molding the leaders we have today in the community and the country.

Back to the M-ettes and the high expectations that people put on them and which they place on themselves.

GOOD. FOR. YOU.

I have noticed a growing trend in youth sports where everyone is awarded the same trophy at the seasons’ end, often times scores aren’t kept at games -- so no one gets their feelings hurt and no one loses -- and the age old mantra of “it’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game” is preached ad nauseam. Sure, at little kid levels of competition, the main things that should be taught are being a good sport and trying your hardest. But I wonder if too much of “everyone is a winner” leads to “everyone is mediocre” as the years roll by.

Anyway, this Wednesday is nearly complete as is this column. If the M-ettes should fail to bring home the state championship I will be frantically trying to come up with a new column when Monday rolls around. We will all be happy for the M-ettes regardless of how they fair in Great Falls, but I feel pretty confidant that page 1A this week will have a headline which reads “M-ette finish perfect season with win at Class B State” or something like that.

Congratulations to all the Phillips County Basketball teams who played their guts out this season and congratulations to the M-ettes for earning the state championship.