By Michael Getzinger
It's official. I'm an old curmudgeon. Just the fact that I use the term curmudgeon should tell you that. In the interest of full disclosure, I'm 62, although truth be known, I'm closer to my 63rd birthday.
I find myself longing for the good old days when life was simpler. I suppose that's what every generation says when they are in their seventh decade. Case in point, last week I attended a Harwood Union High School boys' basketball home game and when I arrived with the game already in progress I was pleased to see that the home team was in the lead. The thing that grabbed my attention immediately was that I had felt as though I had walked into the middle of a church service. If it hadn't been the fact that there were 10 young men running up and down the court in shorts and sneakers, I would've sworn that someone had just passed away. It was so quiet.
After a steal by one of the Harwood players, I yelled (I'm told I possess a very loud voice), "Great play." Half of the bleachers, which were only half full, stared at me like I had three heads and the other half smiled and sighed as if to say, "Thank God there is a fan here."
Fast forward a few minutes and several "Let's go Harwood" (stomp, stomp, stomp-stomp-stomp); the room didn't quite know what to do. A few parents joined in while most of the room remained reserved and church-like. I then began to shout repeatedly, "We can beat these guys!" That garnered a few chuckles, "Yeahs," and more stares.
When I was in school (see above – good old days), we were not only permitted to scream and shout for our team but also expected to cry at the refs when they made a call against our team. Tuesday night, when I cried out "C'mon refs, call 'em both ways," there was a collective "Oooh" from the poorly attended crowd. No doubt, I had crossed the politically correct line. We simply cannot tolerate anyone implying that there is anything unfair happening in this environment. What was I thinking?
So, as you can probably imagine, I yelled it again and to my surprise there were a few "Yeah, c'mon refs!" As the incredibly hard-fought and very close game went on, our home team was really challenging the other team and the small crowd slowly got into it, encouraging our boys. We remained respectful throughout the game even though we were convinced that one of the refs was an alumni of the opponent's school and the other had a son on their team.
Our team fought hard and forced three overtimes! Let me state that again – three overtimes! We had more team members on our bench in ties and various casts than players suited up and ready to go in. The other team suited up 13 players; we had 8.
Harwood's coach, Mike Woods, brilliantly worked the substitutions to keep his eight players fresh and called some very effective timeouts at critical junctions to help shift momentum our way. When one of our starters fouled out in the final overtime, we were down to seven players and Harwood's remaining players fought their hearts out but eventually fell to the visitors.
I will return again to cheer our local sons onto victory and request everyone in The Valley to show up and show your support for these young men who are learning valuable lessons of hard work, dedication to something bigger than themselves and that old saying: "You win some, you lose some and some are rained out. But you gotta get dressed for every game." That's an old-school work ethic.
If you attend a game and wish to remain silent, that's fine. But be advised that when you enter the gym, if this old curmudgeon is in the crowd, I'll be screaming and stomping like I did in the good old days for our team to win. Please join in with me to show these young men some good old-fashioned loud support.
Michael Getzinger lives in Moretown.
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