2 time STATE CHAMPS!

The power of a crowd is amazing! I've always heard of "underdog" stories and how the people or fans of a team affect the players, but I never really witnessed that first hand until yesterday. This Saturday was the 2008 state championship volleyball game in Kenner, La. The high school that I graduated from made it to this point for the 3rd year in a row- this year walking on to the court as the reigning state champs. And who is their opponent? The runner-up from last year, Episcopal School of Acadiana. We knew this would make for a good game. Having lost the previous year made ESA ready for a win, but the fact that they were once again facing the Northlake Christian Wolverines (NCS) who they lost the state title to only one year ago made them vengeful in a sense.
So the game begins. The first game was close the entire time, but my team ended up losing. The second game - same thing. We lost. It was down to this third game. If we won the next 3 games in a row we would reclaim the state title, but if we lost even one game it would be over for us. We had been in this position 2 years ago in which we lost and that is a hard thing to forget about and overcome. So naturally, at this point the crowd was getting a little tired..not to mention the team. Nevertheless we cheered and the team played hearts out and we came back from a 7 point deficit to win the third game! Not to mention my best friend had the winning slam : ) On to the fourth game. The lead was tossed around throughout the game finally landing in the hands of NCS. Then came final game.
Both teams had 2 wins under their belts and this game would determine it all. The fans of ESA had gone from extremely routy to quiet. I guess it was deja vu' from last year and they were getting scared. But not NCS..the fans just got louder! This game was a give-me. It was like we had already won before the game began. Taking the lead from the beginning and keeping it the whole game my team reclaimed their title as the 1A State Champions.
From this experience it just seemed like once the ESA fans gave up, so did the team. They had everything going for them. They won the first 2 games and NCS was getting scared, but we never settled down. We knew there was always a chance and we never gave up on the team, so they never gave up. It just goes to show how having support and somebody believe in you can change everything.