Published: March 20, 2008 10:47 am         

Girls’ season provided lessons

One of the great aspects of sports can be the lessons participants learn about life and themselves.

Like how they react to pressure situations, or how all the hard work and preparation they put in before and after the season actually pays off. During the Cooperstown girls basketball team’s undefeated run to the Final Four this season, there were plenty of moments the players can learn from and carry with them into adulthood. Like when senior Jen Wehner stood at the foul line against Little Falls in the C-1 title game with nine seconds remaining and the game on the line. The Mounties called a timeout to let Wehner think about the situation she was in, but Wehner made what proved to be the winning free throw anyway.

``I wanted the ball in my hands,’’ Wehner said afterward. ``I was a little nervous, but I was confident.’’

Then there’s the matter of sportsmanship, and learning to win, and lose, with dignity. In the state Final Four Saturday, Cooperstown head coach Mike Niles thought Haldane head coach Kenny Haskins displayed poor sportsmanship on a number of levels, and we agree.

On the court, he left his starters in the game and pressed Cooperstown until the final minutes, despite holding a 25-point lead for most of the final eight minutes and winning by a final margin of 63-39. Both of those actions break an unwritten code of sportsmanship between coaches, plus Haldane’s players had to play 24 hours later for the state title.

One could chalk that up to Haskins trying to send a message to his state championship game opponent, but his actions toward Niles before and after the game were less forgivable. ``Before and after the game he was very aloof, and when the game was over he wouldn’t look me in the eye and barely shook my hand,’’ Niles said. ``It kind of took the edge off of everything for me that he wouldn’t even say ‘Congratulations’ or want to interact in any way.’’

Hopefully, Cooperstown’s team learned another lesson from Haskins’ actions — there are more important things than winning and losing. Congratulations to Niles and the Lady Redskins, for winning, and losing, in a manner that made the community proud.