Atencio Martin jumps up to the basket.

By Atencio Martin

There is no better feeling in the world than that of which you get when you watch the game clock count down from 3 to 2 to 1. You can hear the roar of the crowd, the loud rattled sound of the buzzer and your heart telling you that you have nothing left to give. This feeling is unlike any other, especially when it is complimented by a score in your favor. Winning is exciting. Winning is glorious. Winning is the closest thing a basketball player has to magic. But the only event stronger than a win is a loss. And losing always means more than winning.

“There’s no other feeling like it. You feel so low. And it’s the same whether you lost by 1 or 20. But it’s what you do after the loss that matters.” – Josh Gormley (Sophomore).

Josh is correct in that it hurts regardless of the score. You feel nothing when you lose, and that is why the pain is so enormous. In this particular game when the ball went through the net I couldn’t believe it. Those four seconds felt like a minute. I thought for a moment that my eyes had deceived me. We had come too far, fought too hard to lose by one point.

When I walked into the locker room there were no cheers like usual. No phones could be seen as they often can be by players hoping to record the eruption once the whole team was in the locker room. This time as I entered the locker room it was silent. Heads, following their eyes, were down. Every player, from starters to man number sixteen felt the same way, defeated.

For great players like those here at SMCC, the empty feeling after a lose lasts for all of ten minutes before the void is filled with one of the strongest emotions a player can have, determination. Determination shows up when you come to the realization that you’re not satisfied with the position that you’re in.
And we’re never satisfied.

Good players TRY not to end up in the same negative situation while great players DECIDE that they are never going back to the low place they were in after the loss. SMCC is a team full of great players and great coaches. We made a decision that we were going to do everything in our power to make sure that we never walked into that locker room silent again. Because we know that standing back up feels so much better than falling down.
A great man once said suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character. How does it feel to lose? It sucks, but Seawolves have too much character to pack it up when times are tough. Most teams are motivated by winning, but I wouldn’t say we’re motivated at all. We aren’t “most teams”, we’re DETERMINED.