When the Going Gets Tough

It was one of those days. It was a Saturday afternoon and I just woke up from nap. I did not want to wake up yet but I have work on six and I need to charge my mobile phone. Dad just approached me and told me that the Ateneo Lady Eagles (The Ateneo Women’s Volleyball Team) have a game going on. I nodded that I knew of it but I want to continue sleeping. He told me that the team was down by two sets against NU and their star setter, Jem Ferrer, is injured. I did not react but deep inside this was how I felt:

“Great. I am having a horrible week and I get to hear news like that. It is a bad idea to watch after all. I do not want sports to further destroy my day.”

Problem was, my mobile phone charger is downstairs. I have to pass by the TV to see the horror unfolding. While I was heading down, I had some glimmer of hope. Dad loves to joke about sports outcomes. He says my team is getting beat down but the truth is, they actually won. But by the time I reached the TV, alas, the Lady Eagles were really getting beat badly. I proceeded back to bed to sleep. There are more important things in life than sports.

I woke up barely an hour later. Work is about to start. I checked Twitter and found out Ric Olivares’ post. The Ateneo Lady Eagles have tied the ballgame and are heading to the tiebreaker set. Whoa. There is life after all. I did not hurry to go downstairs though. I have been so scarred in several years of paasa games – when your team makes a huge rally after being down then they come up short in the end. I did not want it to blemish my week and night further. However, sports also built up the irrational confidence for me to believe. I grew up rooting non-dynasty teams so I was more accustomed to watching gut-check type of games. Twenty to thirty years from now, I will be blaming that along with love life and thriller movies as the reasons why I am having heart problems. With a blink of an eye, I went to watch the game.

Ateneo was down by two points when I started watching. They caught up, tied and led eventually. Then, the referee blew a call. It was supposed to be NU scoring a point but they made it in favor of Ateneo. The only problem was, it was a judgment call. You do not reverse judgment calls. They eventually reversed it to the dismay of Ateneo coach Roger Gorayeb. I, on the other hand, just watched with no expectations – after seeing Manny get knocked out in a last second punch last week, I was pretty much ready for the figurative stomach punch.

Guess what, it never came.

Ateneo defeated NU and remained flawless in the eliminations. I smiled. Sometimes, it pays to believe.

Sports. People love watching sports due to various things. For some, they love the thrill of cardiac games like this. Some love sports because they could gamble off of it. Some love it because they have crushes on athletic figures. Most people love watching it because of victory. No, let me correct that: All people want to see their sports figures win. This is the same as getting the sweet ‘yes’ of the girl you love or gaining capital from your stocks. You will be shitting on me if you do not want to see your team win. However, such is a life of a sports fan. Probability-wise, we lose more than we win. Along the way, you have to pick up something from experience. As Boom said (Whoa! I am quoting Boom Gonzales???), Ateneo came through awhile ago because their character developed from such experiences before.

I watched this batch of Lady Eagles since 2009. They were formidable and talented but the knock on them was that they lack the swagger and the will to win on clutch situations. They failed to win the championship in each year. Seeing them pull off the comeback win amidst an injured setter is surreal. It was like the UE overtime game that the Blue Eagles (Men’s Basketball Team) won in 2008 where they struggled the whole game but they used sheer will to come back. These are the moments that the bruises and the wounds from years of failure give you. And with that, I think one of the most vital components for me (as a fan) is character.

Your team can win or lose any time, but how you react is what matters.

I admit it: I am not the best person to have good character in sports. I throw expletives every now and then. Exhibit A is my tweet after Pacquiao went down last week. I get annoyingly noisy when things get tough. Then, why should you listen to me? In the years that I have watched sports, I somehow learned some key takeaways. It might not be the same as others’ perspectives but these are ones that I have learned to treasure through the years.

Note: These are not absolutes and some are intertwining other aspects but I hope you get the idea of some of these. Feel free to disagree with me if you want to.

Passion

This has got to be one of the most notable things in sports. However, it is still worth mentioning. This is for every time you see the word “PUSO” that Ateneans love to place in their placards during games. This is for every time you see fans crying either in victory or defeat. This is for all the deafening screams and cheers during the games.

I am a huge subscriber of passionate watching in sports. I would rather see fans crying or booing than be indifferent. It shows how deeply they care for their team. Players need to be uplifted every now and then and even if they are conditioned to disregard the crowd. They are still humans and emotions fuel them. Who does not get pumped up when Tom Brady scrambled for the first down at the end of the third quarter in the blowout game against Texans? The New England fans came roaring. It feeds to the psyche of the athletes.

Where does character come into play here? It is on how strong your heart is in certain situations. Some fans get disturbingly quiet once their team goes down a deep hole. Or, just the will to line up to buy tickets for game day. Or, just clap while your team does something. However, my favorite example here would be cheering relentlessly even if your team is down by double digits. Never say die.

Impartiality

You may ask, why is impartiality in here if we are talking about fanhood? After all, the word ‘fan’ comes from ‘fanaticism.’ You should be irrational all the way, right? Wrong. You can be irrational in choosing your teams but it is important if you could be impartial on the game outcomes. This quality usually contradicts passion in a lot of ways but a good balance of both is healthy.

Let’s face it: there is a winner and a loser in every game. Your team lost for a reason. It irks me whenever people complain that their team got cheated or got unlucky. Classic case would be Pacquiao’s defeat last Sunday. He got punched cleanly by Marquez. Game over. Deal with it.

It is tough but it is always a wonderful sight when losers accept defeat graciously. One of my favorite highlights during UAAP games is when the schools sing the Alma Mater hymns. The opposing crowd always (or often) applauds to give respect.

It is also good whenever fans know where and what their team lacked rather than be fanboys and fangirls in getting blinded by the truth. It is a good practice of humility and self-awareness. If there is one thing I learned through the years of watching live, it has to be on complaining to referees. Evaluate the situation without bias before complaining. You will notice that there are lots of plays where your team gets a free pass. And besides, referees are humans too. They do not get to watch the game on replays (except on NFL challenges like the one in Seattle… but that’s beside the point).

Nobody is perfect. Understand the situation before you react. It is better to accept mistakes than be arrogant about it.

Mental Toughness

“Don’t the best of them bleed it out? While the rest of them peter out”
– Foo Fighters from the song “My Hero”

I started with discussing about heart then the mind and now we got… wait for it… a combination of both. This was the most important quality the Lady Eagles had when they pulled off the comeback awhile ago. This is about determination to persevere in situations that are not for the weak of heart.

This may apply mostly to athletes but I think it also applies to us, normal people in our daily lives. When you cram for a deliverable or is asked about a difficult decision on-the-spot by your boss, what would you do? Would you crumble under pressure? Would you rattle? Or, would you stay calm and confident?

The same applies to athletes when they face difficult circumstances. Ateneo was pretty much a losing team awhile ago when they lost Jem Ferrer to injury and was down by two sets. What amazed me was the fact that she strived to play through it. That’s some kind of fortitude that kid has. She may not be a usual topic because she doesn’t score the glory kills or is not a headturner either, but you have to give her kudos for fighting it out to the end awhile ago.

When then-rookie Ryan Buenafe went ahead and scored the game-winning layup against the UE Red Warriors in 2008, I rejoiced and celebrated. Not because we won the game, it was because it was a validation that our rookie is special. Two years from that, he would go on and beat FEU with a clutch three-pointer in the Finals. Playing grace under pressure is a unique intangible that I appreciate in sports. As a fan, would you be holding on to your ‘Believe’ sign and believing even if the game is not going your way? Will you be believing that your team can pull it off even if they are on a losing skid? Will you go nuts and press the ‘panic button’ once the opponents catch up on your team? Like what the commentators usually say: “This is where men are separated from boys.”

These are the sports-related character qualities that mean the most to me during games (or in some aspects of life as well). What are yours?