Sports commentary: One for all, and all for the win

Saturday night was a pretty emotional day for the Bigfork High School basketball programs and their fans.

Cliches like "Hard work pays off" and "There's no I in team" have been running through my head in an attempt to describe what happened in Libby this weekend, but none of them quite do the event justice. The fact is, Saturday night, Bigfork was the school that its students had always wanted it to be. They were "the Columbia Falls of last year" and "the Whitefish dynasty." They were on top of the world and loving every minute.

While taking the group pictures of the boys team gathered around their first place plaque holding up their No. 1 fingers, I had a flashback from the beginning of the season. It wasn't all that long ago that I was gathering those same boys together for a picture of them in their new warm-ups the weekend that they found out they had made the team. It's pretty remarkable how far they've come since then.

When the season started, I wrote a lot about how the boys had new gear, a new coach, a new philosophy and a whole lot of new players on the varsity team. As much as everyone wanted those things to mean that this season would be different, there was really no way to know if they meant anything at all. The fresh start only provided a guarantee of possibilities, but really that's the case with every new season.

The boys program may have the fairy-tale story this year, but the girls have a lot to be proud of as well. The last couple of weeks my friends have asked me for scores from the games I have covered, and, when they heard the girls' scores, they have been shocked. I always reply without thinking, "Our girls are solid." It wasn't until the district tournament that I realized just how true that was, though. The Vals are tremendous at wedging a small lead and just steadily pulling away from their opponent. In fact, their whole season has followed that same path. They started out with a couple of wins and a couple of losses, and then they just pulled away in the standings with win after win. All season, through the changes in their roster and the alterations to their plays; they remained solid and they are constantly improving and breaking records.

To those who don't follow these teams very closely, it is easy to downplay the importance of the successful season they are having this year. But for anyone who has, you know just how sweet it is.

Win or lose this weekend at the Western B Divisional Tournament, both teams should feel like champions.