VIANO COLUMN: Winning the only thing? Hardly

No one wants to talk to me about losing.

Shocker, I know.

It is a little confusing, though, because somewhere around half the football teams playing tonight across Montana will lose. That means a lot of people who don’t want to talk about losing are going to be doing an awful lot of it real soon.

The other half of the teams, of course, will win.

Winning will be a new feeling for one group of boys in Lincoln County. For the losers, the feeling will be nothing new.

And, dang it, I’m here for the losers.

Tonight is homecoming in Libby, where the high school football team is still searching for the first win since being reassigned to Class B before the start of the 2015 season. The opponent, from just 20 minutes to the west, is the Troy Trojans, who scored their first points of the season last week in Florence and, like the Loggers, are winless this season.

They are, by some measures, the two worst teams in the state. They have been outscored by a combined 542-38 in 10 total losses. In a society that so values winning (‘I’m a winner, I have huge amounts of winning, I only do the best winning’), being a loser is less popular than ever.

So the question, to me, persists — if losing is so terrible, why does anyone do it?

Sports isn’t life but it does a heck of a job imitating it sometimes. That’s the reason it’s so stressed in schools around the country, right?

It teaches about hard work, teamwork, communication under pressure and perseverance in the face of adversity, among other things.

But no kid who’s playing in a football game tonight has to be there, not least of all the kids lining up for Libby and Troy. One of those kids, Loggers backup quarterback Braydan Thom, is a senior who’s been around the Libby program for years, years filled mostly with one-sided losses.

I ask, then, why does Braydan keep showing up?

“I would love to hear his answer,” Libby Activities Director Nik Rewerts said.

I would, too, which is why I’m going to Libby tonight.

Listen, winning is an awful lot of fun. And it feels even better when you can do it after putting in the hard work, overcoming the obstacles placed in front of you, doing it when no one believes you can, showing up with that metaphorical lunch pail every day and sweating every day until you’re good enough to win. That’s the Cinderella story.

That’s what it will feel like for one of the two teams in Libby tonight. All the summer weightlifting, all the extra running, all the mental reps when no one was looking, all the hours spent away from friends and family, the hours not spent chasing girls or hanging out with friends, they’ll all feel worth it for the winner. Automatically. It might not last, but it’s a magical thing that’s going to happen for one group of kids.

“We’re just trying to get confidence and get the kids to believe,” Libby coach Neil Fuller said. “It makes it tough when you’re getting thumped week in and week out.”

The implication is that winning will bring confidence. Winning would bring belief. Losing, well, it would be tough.

But what does that mean, then? All the work and all the reps, were they not worth it for the loser?

Sometimes the teams you’re on don’t win. You don’t get the grade you wanted or the scholarship you wanted. You don’t get the girl (or boy). You don’t get the job. You work hard and things don’t happen like you wanted because that’s life.

You don’t always get the so-called happy ending, but why is that the only ending that has to be happy? And why is only the end happy?

It’s because the end isn’t the only happy part, I don’t think. The journey is more important, more fun, more rewarding than the win itself — although try telling that to a football coach.

And I get it, I do, because admitting you might not win and considering the possibility that there won’t be a victory to celebrate at the end of the day, or the end of the season, is a frightening prospect. It’s a hard thing to wrap your head around.

It is true, though, that appreciating the trip you’re on just as much as — no, more than — the conclusion is the best lesson sports can teach.

The time in the weight room, the times challenging yourself and your limits, and all the time doing it with a group of people you believe in, that was the happy ending.

That’s the fairy tale story I’ll be watching tonight.

Andy Viano is a sports reporter and columnist at the Daily Inter Lake. He will be bringing his chainsaw to Libby and can be reached at aviano@dailyinterlake.com or (406) 758-4446.