Tonight's 7 p.m. time slot was pretty mundane forcing me to go endlessly flipping through the hundreds of channels offered on my digital cable box. After watching the obligatory rerun of The Simpsons and Seinfeld I was in need of some fresh entertainment. I randomly flipped to the sports channels (ESPN, The MTN., and the like) to see if any game was on to watch, there wasn't but I was happy to find a suitable replacement in a show called Replay.
The show, sponsored by everyone's favorite sports beverage - Gatorade, gives athletes a second chance to relive that one moment that they regret. The ceremonious opening shows empty views of football fields, baseball fields, and hockey rinks while the deep-voiced announcer speaks of no second chances in sports, except when Gatorade steps in.
Today's lucky group were bitter high school rivals Easton and Phillipsburg High School, the epic rivalry came to a head in 1993 when the game ended in a tie. Ever since the two schools' players have wished for a second chance to right their wrong. The players now in their early thirties trained for over two months for a chance at playing their rival just once more. Although the "Replay"-ed game ended with Phillipsburg winning convincingly the players could not have been happier knowing that they still played like champions 16-years later.
The show got me thinking about my athletic misstep, 1997 Bennion Junior High vs. Eisenhower Junior High - The War for the Warrior rivalry wrestling duel. We were told the Bennion vs. Eisenhower wrestling duel was the biggest of all rivalries and as a 13 year-old eighth grader I believed it. I was the varsity 240-pound wrestler, weighing only 190 I was greatly out mismatched on the mat. I admit I was a horrible wrestler only winning one match during junior high but regardless I pushed myself hard to be part of the team.
Since both BJH and EJH fed into Taylorsville High, the match was nicknamed the War for the Warrior which had a traveling trophy and all. Although my Bennion had traditionally been the more dominate team overall in the district Eisenhower always seemed to beat us in our yearly matchup. I remember the that we were leading the points in the duel for most of the night until the upper weights started to falter, by the time my weight was up (the last match of the night) we were down by four points. By rule there are only three ways to score four or more points in a wrestling match: 1. technical fall (four points)-win the individual match by 10 points , 2. pin fall (seven points)-pinning the opponent, and 3. forfeit (seven points)-counts just like a pin fall.
I knew I couldn't tech fall Eisenhower's best and biggest wrestler, and he wasn't going to forfeit so I was left with only one option, pin him. And my teammates were no slouches to making sure I knew how much was on my shoulders.
As soon as the whistle blew I thought my only chance was to go at him quick, I was wrong. He threw me around for one round, then just a few seconds into round two he flipped me onto my back and pinned me. I remember laying there on the mat in the middle of Taylorsville High's gym staring up at the spotlight hanging above me while Eisenhower's team celebrated. I got up shook my opponent's hand gave him a bro-hug then walked over to my coach, where the tears started flowing and I couldn't stop them.
I let my whole team down and it was the one athletic moment in my life that I do regret. Second chances don't happen in sports, although I feel bad about not winning or even putting up much of a fight I've moved on to bigger and better things.
Life isn't about all the wins, sometimes the losses make you who you are.
