Spirit of a winner

It’s tough to be the small school competing against others two or three times our size. As one of the smallest schools in 3A, we know that our competitiveness ebbs and flows, and we have put together some pretty great teams throughout the years.
However, the last state championship that a Dogie team has brought home happened in 2004 with a four-peat of the Lady Dogie Swim Team under head coach Todd Quigley.
The last boys’ basketball championship was the infamous 20-point fourth quarter comeback against Torrington in 1990. That happened 10 years before I came to Newcastle, and I feel like I was thereafter hearing how the drama unfolded more than a few times.
For the Lady Dogie hoopsters, it’s been since 1979 since a state championship has found its way onto a banner to grace the Dogie Dome.
I grew up in the small town of Philip, S.D., so I know how rare it is to know a state title. It was even harder to get there for our little town, however. South Dakota has only three classes of schools and there are a lot more schools, so to get to the state tournament in basketball, you had to win districts to get to regionals and win regionals to get to state. You absolutely had to be the best of the best to earn a state berth. 
As such, I never knew the feeling of getting to regionals, let alone state. 
Coming from that level of competition, imagine my excitement of winning our way to the state tournament in my first year as an assistant basketball coach in Newcastle.
We had an awesome team with six-foot twin towers under the basket and guard play to boot. And yet, there were other teams who were able to get the best of us.
Though Newcastle doesn’t often bring home a team state title, what our Dogies have is grit, determination and heart. 
Last weekend, the Lady Dogie soccer team proved just that. After an incredible and historic regular season where they lost only one game and tied only two, the Lady Dogies headed to the state tournament as the No. 1 seed in the 3A East, but knew they were up against a formidable west side docket.
Unfortunately, despite a valiant effort against Mountain View in their opening contest where it came down to a shootout to determine the victor, Newcastle found themselves in unfamiliar territory as they lost their first contest since the first one of the year.
This was a team that has played together, and succeeded together since they were 5 years old, so the dream of a state championship as seniors was not out of the realm of possibility.
It would have been easy for them to roll over and succumb to the disappointment of seeing that dream die, but rather than wallow in self-pity, the team came back and advanced to the consolation championship against the No. 2 seeded team in the east conference. 
There was debate on WyoPreps throughout the season as to who was the better team in the east, between Newcastle and Buffalo, with Buffalo often receiving the nod despite the fact that Newcastle tied and then defeated them in their two meetings during the season.
We are used to that. We are used to being overlooked and doubted.
So, as we faced off once again in the consolation championships, there was a trophy on the line and there was even more because it was time to prove once and for all who was the better team.
The Lady Dogies took the field on Saturday morning with five of the six starters suffering from a flu bug that hit them during the night. It would have been easy and understandable for those young ladies to have given in to their illness and discomfort, but if you didn’t know that they were sick you would have never known it watching them play.
Grit, determination, stubbornness, competitiveness and the resiliency that is inherent in us as humans showed itself as the Lady Dogies pushed and fought to take the decisive win over the Lady Bison. 
In doing so, they brought home the first soccer state trophy since head coach Cami Willyard was a part of the team in 2008. 
It’s not a championship, but it is in so many ways. We are small fish swimming in a pretty big pond, so when we are able to bring home glory to our school, it’s a pretty cool thing. 
This season will be remembered forever by the girls, coaches, parents and fans and there is nothing but pride in the memory. It is a great illustration of a winning spirit on display.