Silver linings

I
n this crazy year full of cancelled events and solitude, of constant fighting and stress, of uncertainty and worry, there have been a few silver linings that have shown themselves recently in the realm of high school sports.
The first is that the Newcastle Cross Country team became the first fall sports team to successfully complete their season. When we started things two months ago, I had hope that the athletes would be able to see their seasons to fruition, but in the back of my mind, I was afraid they would be cut short.
Well, one down, three to go!
Another unexpected silver lining is that due to Covid-19, the normal regional volleyball format has been modified this year. Rather than competing in the usual double elimination tournament, this year it’s a winner-take-all in round one situation. 
Initially, this may seem as if it’s not a good thing, but on closer inspection — and taking into consideration the Lady Dogies season right now — it turns out that the squad couldn’t have asked for a better scenario. 
Here’s how the tournament is set up. The one and four seeds from the Northeast will play each other and the two and three seeds from the Northeast will play each other — the same will take place in the Southeast Quadrant as well. 
The winners of those two games will qualify for the state tournament and the losers will bid adieu to their 2020 season. 
Yes, it’s a really high-stakes game which may lead one to think that it is not such a great situation. Well, that’s where one would be wrong.
Douglas is the clear number one in our quadrant so there is little doubt that they will be advancing, however, the contest between the two and three seeds is totally up for grabs. Buffalo currently holds the second seed and Newcastle is the third, so on paper, it looks like that gives the advantage to Buffalo.
But here’s the deal: Buffalo and Newcastle have split on the season and when Buffalo won, they came from being behind two sets to zero to win in five, and when Newcastle won (Saturday), they defeated the Lady Bison in four sets.
So with this in mind, it is actually the Dogies who are going into the contest with the upper hand. Granted, they will have to play well because the Lady Bison are scrappy and will definitely bring it, but Newcastle has momentum right now.
With that said, the real silver lining for this unique format for Newcastle is that when you look at the whole east conference, the south teams are actually stronger than the north. Rawlins, Wheatland and Torrington all have winning seasons and have defeated the northeast teams they have played (except for Douglas), so for them this format is less than desirable since one of the legitimately better teams from the east is going to see their season end prematurely when it likely wouldn’t have if the Regional tournament were played in the usual way.
While on one hand I feel a little bad for those teams, on the other hand the thought of it makes me smile. The Lady Dogies’ season record isn’t indicative of the young team’s ability so I love the fact that they have a pretty good chance of making it to the Big Dance.
It just goes to show that even in less than satisfactory situations, there’s always a silver lining that can be found if you just look.