Denim Millward
Sports Editor
Whether you’re an active participant in sports, a board game aficionado, a video game enthusiast or even the most casual observer of any of these activities, you’ve certainly arrived at the same conclusion as everyone else.
Losing sucks. Horribly.
By nature, we as humans seem to be obsessed with definitively determining our relative superiority over our fellow man. This desire seems to have spawned our obsession with competition, and subsequently gave birth to games where scores are kept. Such games, including sports, give us quantifiable data that tells us not only who is better, but by how much.
While this data is useful in measuring the performance of both individuals and teams, finding yourself on the wrong end of the data adds a few extra shake of salt into the gaping wound opened up by loss after loss.
Understanding that, I completely understand if me bringing up the final records of the ISU Women’s Tennis Team (3-14,) Men’s Tennis Team (6-11) or Men’s basketball team (7-23) result in any player or coach on any of the aforementioned teams uttering a few sentences chock-full of curse words as well as my name.
While not at the collegiate level, I’ve experienced the misery of being on a mostly losing team. I’ve also experienced rooting for a team whose win total is almost absurdly exceeded by its loss total. It’s a brutal experience, one that can’t end soon enough. You question whether your participation in/fandom of a particular sport is worth the torment, suffering and consequential pissy mood that inevitably follows a loss.
Aside from simply existing as a possibility that must be accepted pending involvement in any competitive venture, losing does have some value.
First, it helps you more thoroughly appreciate the thrill of victory when the time comes. The elation I felt when, after four failed attempts, my Denver Broncos finally won a Super Bowl, was most definitely elevated due to the heartbreak I felt after previous failed seasons.
Second, it’s a lesson, albeit a painful one, in dealing with adversity. The sports landscape is dotted with examples of a player or team wholly unfamiliar with anything but winning being tripped up by a perhaps less talented but more experienced player or team that had a wealth of experience with coming up on the wrong end of things when the final buzzer sounded or whistle blew. Lessons learned from previous losses are virtually always a key ingredient in a successful season.
The ISU football team certainly had its fair share of racking up tallies in the ‘L’ column prior to last year’s turnaround, and head coach Mike Kramer did a masterful job in simultaneously using the knowledge and experience accrued in losing seasons and changing the culture and mindset of the program to a winning one. Therein lies the key in making the most out of losing: Learning from your mistakes and not repeating them.
