By Mike McGraw
Executive Director
For Roncalli, it would make an unprecedented four in a row.
Few people doubted that the Catholic schools would take home the titles. In fact, most people were sure that Chatard would not even have to break much of a sweat to erase NorthWood. After all, the Panthers had ended the regular season at 3-6 before going on their improbable tournament run. Lowell might prove a slightly sterner test for Roncalli, but surely nothing the Rebels couldn�t handle.
As a result, the grumbling had already started. You could hear it in the stands at the dome, and it had bubbled just under the surface of media coverage all week. The message boards on our site and others were ablaze with conversation about what should be done to foil the Catholic school oligarchy.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the trophy presentation — somebody forgot to tell NorthWood and Lowell they were supposed to play the role of the lovable loser. Instead, the players and coaching staffs of these two programs tightened their chin straps before going out and dumping the supposedly overpowering parochial juggernauts on their butts.
So much for whining season.
The victories of these Northern Indiana public two schools should put to rest once and for all the clamoring for some contrived system to make it more difficult for the private schools. That is a VERY good thing. It is time that some people in the public school community learned that the way to compete is to get better, not to penalize someone else because they do.
NorthWood and Lowell showed that it is possible to not only compete with the parochial powers, but to beat them. We offer our congratulations to these teams, but we warn you — you wonââ?¬â?¢t be on the Christmas card list of some of your public school brethren.
What do you think? Share YOUR thoughts in our forum.
Processing your request, Please wait....
