COLUMN: Sports moments that define us
I’ve written at great length about what is wrong with sports this semester. Corruption, arrogance and cover-ups are definitely items worthy of attention. But even with all these items, there’s still undoubtedly an upside to organized sports that cannot be measured.
HBO and Sports Illustrated are going to attempt to do just that with the upcoming, multipart mini-series titled, “Sport in America: Our Defining Stories.” The mini-series, which premieres in 2013, invites regular people to share their stories on how a moment in sports changed their lives, which athletes inspired them or when a victory meant the most. This is my moment, and hopefully it will get you thinking about your own stories.
Three things in high school have had a profound effect on my life to this day: Meeting my best friend — as well as rediscovering a few after graduating — taking debate class and the 2007 season of Papillion-La Vista South (PLS)
Titan football.
All these seemingly unconnected events have, in their own beautifully non-subtle ways, affected me further and sent me farther than I could’ve imagined. From the football angle, there was probably no more-inspiring moment than one night in
September 2007.
By this time, the school was in its fifth year of operation, and the youth showed in the athletics programs. The first three years had been disasters for the football team, with a 2-25 record to prove it. The fourth year had shown some hope, but the Titans ultimately finished 4-5 on
the year.
We all looked collectively to our fifth year as a statement-making year, but a 1-1 start made some believe the team had plateaued. Week three against winless Omaha Burke would be a telling game, and I was there as I had been since 2005 — as
a photographer.
The game began smoothly enough, but by the second half, PLS hadn’t managed to pull ahead as far as expected. Late in the fourth, Burke ended up taking a 16-14 lead with under three minutes remaining with over 80 yards between the Titans and the end-zone.
Late-game heroics had never been our strong suit, but with the season in the balance, that would have to change. There the drive started. I was a huge Journey fan at the time, and, caught up in the moment, I started yelling, “Don’t stop believing” over and over while I was taking pictures.
Slowly the team made it to midfield. With just over a minute left, it would take nothing short of a great effort to close the gap. That’s when the
play happened.
With the ball on the Burke 49-yard line, quarterback Anthony Dunn dropped back ten yards before launching the ball toward the sideline. Leaping to catch it, almost directly in front of me, was running back Michael
Burrus — the very same who now
plays for the Coyotes.
Burrus would take the ball the rest of the way down the sideline and leap into the end-zone for a touchdown. I — being younger and more spry — went leaping down the sidelines with many of his teammates in tow. Following a two-point conversion, the score was 22-16 — which was the game’s final score.
As exciting as the moment was, it was essentially forgotten by students a week later, as PLS finally beat hated rival Papillion-La Vista for the first time and finished the season 5-4 for their first winning record. However, the moment wasn’t lost for me.
Despite the play lasting a mere ten seconds, I wrote a column for our school’s news website recounting my experience and realized how much I enjoyed writing. This carried on into college where I started working for
The Volante.
Thanks to this job, I’ve been around the country, met some of the most important people in the news business, witnessed events I won’t soon forget and haven’t even turned 25 yet. Sometimes I feel a bit like Forrest Gump. And I can attribute a lot of it to ten seconds
in September.
It’s easy for us to get caught up in what’s wrong with sports and forget what impact they can have on
our lives.
Think of your own moments in which sports affected you, because you never know where a homerun in October, a catch in early February, a three-pointer in early April, a dunk in June, a World Cup goal or 10 seconds in September may send you.
Reach columnist Rob Nielsen at
