I Feel Your Pain, LHS

This story has been told before. A talented and successful Lourdes boys basketball team enters the post-season as the favorite to get out of the section and represent our area in the state tournament only to be upset somewhere along the line. It's our own little curse. We never traded Babe Ruth. I've never heard legends of turning a goat away at the door. But our curse is real and alive.

I first learned of the curse when I was a freshman in high school. It would have been the '92-'93 season. Although I was primarily a B-squad player, I was fortunate enough to suit up for varsity games as well and play the closing seconds of the occasional blowout. Our team that season, with another conference championship to its name, was eliminated early in the playoffs. During my "we'll get 'em next year" thoughts, someone shouted, "I can't believe it happened again!"

Apparently this has been going on for a while, although I don't know enough to even give an estimate. But I can tell you that I did nothing to break the curse. My sophomore year we lost to a solid St. Charles team with names like Spud Stevens, J.B. Mathison and Justin Treptau. But we had entered as the favorites. My junior year we were again ousted prematurely but my senior year, we were confident. We had already beaten a talented Lake City team twice, including just days earlier in the HVL championship game-our third conference title in three years. But the Tigers, led by Lance Mienke, sneaked out of the Mayo Civic Auditorium with another upset of a Lourdes powerhouse.

Shortly after I left, a couple Lourdes teams were able to make the state tournament. And maybe that's good enough. Maybe that broke the curse. This year's squad wasn't really upset. They lost to a Dover-Eyota team with a better record. But maybe what Lourdes boys basketball really needs is a state championship. Maybe that's the only thing that will open the floodgates.

I'm confident it will come soon. Every other sport at Lourdes, from baseball to tennis and everything in between, has been off the charts. Soon, the boys basketball team will do what I and so many others were unable to do. They will win a state championship.

Then all that will be left to work on is the Lourdes football curse. But that's a story for another day.