I know it hurts. Ohio’s unblemished record was officially and excruciatingly blemished on Saturday. And it had to be at the hands of Miami, of all teams. And it had to happen in the last few moments of the game. That really stings.
One thing I have to commend the sports community on is its ability to tolerate pain. Even though I wouldn’t describe the men in my hallway who were yelling and swearing after the game as “tolerant,” I do have to hand it to them.
Following sports is a hobby that comes with an emergency room full of guaranteed agony and disappointment. In order to care as much as they do, they have to be able to stomach those tough losses on a semi-regular basis.
Sports fans must have either an exceptionally high threshold for pain or the ability to ignore it exceptionally well.
I don’t know how they handle the brutal setbacks or where all that frustrated energy is supposed to go. Does it get transferred into renewed hatred for Miami, or are we all just supposed to hate Tyler Tettleton for a few days? If moving on is the next best step, how exactly do you lick your wounds and nurse your bleeding pride back to health?
It’s a tough time to be faced with the task of recovery. That wound feels especially salty coming down from the high of a seven-game winning streak and a top-25 ranking. The fact that it happened in Oxford makes it even worse. Now is probably the wrong time to mention that our formerly undefeated hockey team also lost during the weekend. And I probably shouldn’t bring up the fact that the women’s soccer team got booted out of the MAC tournament, also by Miami.
Plus it’s forecasted to rain for something like 10 days straight, so all in all, this is a depressing week to be Athens.
But don’t let it cut you too deep because, in my uneducated but optimistic opinion, we’re still doing comparatively well. Almost undefeated is better than most teams can hope for, and getting kicked out of a tournament is better than not being in one at all, right?
Although I still don’t invest enough enthusiasm into sports to be really reeling from the weekend’s losses, I do understand sports enough at this point to be able to appreciate how well the volleyball team is doing. The Bobcat squad achieved sweet redemption against Bowling Green at The Convo this weekend, extending its winning streak to 11 sets and securing itself a spot atop the conference ranking, which is hopefully every bit as awesome as I think it is.
It might not be the best week to be a Bobcat, but there’s still plenty to be cheerful about. We’ve still got ourselves a good group of teams, OU gear will probably be on sale this week and nobody died at the Halloween block party.
So don’t give up on that spirited feeling we had a few weeks ago, and don’t throw any tomatoes at Tettleton. Channel your pain into something productive, such as rooting even harder for the school’s teams next weekend or depleting campus stores of its entire stock of anti-Miami T-shirts.
Haylee Pearl is a sophomore studying journalism, a novice sports viewer and a copy editor for The Post. Is your ego sore from the weekend losses? Tell her about it at hp208310@ohiou.edu.
