Badgers down to last chance to avoid 0-10
Jeremy Heath

There's just one chance left.

One chance for the senior Lampasas football players to avoid laying their heads on their pillows every night for the rest of their lives knowing they didn't win a game in their final season. Anyone who has worn their high school's colors on a field or court -- no matter how recently or how long ago -- can attest to the significance of that prospect.

The question is: What are the Badgers going to do with that one chance?

Are they going to buck up and fight, or are they going to lie down and quit?

After last Friday's 42-0 beating at the hands of Cedar Park Vista Ridge (the score could have been much worse), I wonder.

It's not that the Badgers had much of a chance against the Rangers. Vista Ridge is a solid team with playoff hopes intact. A win would have been an eyebrowraiser to say the least.

It's more that the Badgers didn't play with much fire. And don't get me wrong. I'm not accusing this team of lying down last Friday night. I'd have to be a mind reader to make a statement like that. Whether or not the team quit on Friday is between the players and God.

It might just be a simple case of this group of kids not understanding how to win. After all, winning isn't something athletes do. Winning is a frame of mind. It's an attitude that develops from the time athletes are born. Through the years, that attitude is constantly damaged and repaired by experience. If over time it receives more damage than reparation, the result is an inability to understand how to properly prepare oneself for competition.

Football is first and foremost a game of execution, and execution requires tremendous focus and composure. But the right kind of focus is found in the gray area between calmness and absolute terror. Calmness results from the confidence that everything that can be done in preparation has been done. Absolute terror results from the thought of getting beaten as an individual and letting one's teammates down.

The controlled fear between that calmness and terror keeps athletes just confident enough to loosen up and play football, yet just scared enough to remain focused and limit gambles.

Harnessing of that fear can't be taught or coached. Athletes are either born with the ability to do it, or they're not. Most people recognize that ability as competitiveness.

Competitiveness drives athletes to finish their weightroom workouts when their bodies hurt. It motivates them to put in extra work on their own -- when no one else is watching. It gives them the courage to call out teammates who aren't doing the same.

Competitiveness breeds success. In turn, success breeds a higher level of competitiveness. It's that higher level of competitiveness that creates winners. Winners hate losing more than they love winning, but at the same time they're not afraid to lose. That's because they'll still be able to sleep at night, knowing they at least did everything in their power to avoid losing.

The difference between a winner and a loser is that a winner isn't afraid to put it all on the table, whereas a loser thinks that by holding something back, he can cushion the blow of a loss. After all, if an athlete doesn't invest everything he's got, he won't lose everything he's got.

Then again, he'll probably never gain anything either.

Let's grade the Vista Ridge game:

Offense, D: Out of sync.

The passing game seemed rushed.

The running game was less than physical.

Defense, D: Football has changed at every level to the point where it's no longer second nature for defensive players to understand their assignments against the option.

It's not drilled into kids' heads every week, because the number of teams that run the option are few and far between.

That said, it's better to tackle someone -- whether he has the ball or not -- than to tackle no one at all.

What's the old saying? Oh yeah, when in doubt, hit somebody.

Special Teams, C: Seth Fry was probably the team's most valuable player because of his consistent punting.

The kickoff coverage team allowed a 57-yard return to open the game, but Cole Ball was one block away from breaking a long one of his own.

When Dripping Springs rolls into town tonight, the Badger seniors have one final opportunity to put everything on the line.

If they do that and they win, they can forget about the previous nine games for the rest of their lives.

If they do it and they lose, at least they can go to sleep knowing they truly gave it their all.

If they hold anything back, then they're the ones who will have to live with themselves.

What have they got to lose?

Besides some sleep.

Jeremy Heath is the Dispatch Record's sports editor. His column appears Fridays. He can be contacted via e-mail at jheath@lampasas.com.