South Central’s curse
Oct. 31, 2007 @ 11:03 a.m. by JoannaNot sure if this is really a curse, but if I were South Central (located in Coldwater), an 8-Man Division II team, I’d feel cursed by the playoff gods.
Not one of South Central’s players have played in the playoffs until this season, but to get to their first playoff game last night (Tuesday), they had to travel to Cedar Vale, which is a 350-mile round trip. Coldwater is in southwest Kansas but is the farthest west team in the east side of the bracket.
Coach Matt Smith did his best to make the trip seem not so long.
 ”We stopped in Harper, took a restroom break and then ate lunch in Wellington and then at Southwestern College… we hung out and watched practice for an hour and got off the bus. That helps when we don’t have to be for four to five hours (straight).”
Smith said his team was a little sluggish, but this is their first trip to the playoffs and they handled it.
Well, they have an even longer distance to travel on Saturday when they go to Hope, for a 430-mile round trip. It just keeps getting worse and worse for this team.
“I’m working on an itinerary right now,” Smith said. “I’m trying to figure out who I can call, what’s between here and Hope, what’s some place to stop where someone in the coaching fraternity will be kind to let us hang out for an hour, hour and a half. We’ve got a 4 p.m. game, so we’ll leave at 7:30 or 8 in the morning and stop in hutchinson or McPherson for lunch.”
It’s a crazy situation for this team to be in, but that’s life in 8-Man.
October 31st, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Things are tough all over. Goodland had a 600+ mile round trip to get clobbered by Andale.
October 31st, 2007 at 1:38 pm
We did that in ‘93 traveling from Caldwell to Stockton for sub-state to lose 6-3. Made for a long drive home.
Can’t they use neutral fields?
October 31st, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Someone once said, “The Jouney Is The Reward”.
November 1st, 2007 at 9:55 am
Coach is right.
The memories made while on a bus are just as memorable as the ones you make on the field.
Who’ll forget when so-and-so was a idiot and woke up Coach on that long bus ride, and who’ll forget the reason why no one who has eaten fifteen burritos should be allowed on a bus that has to make a 3+ hour drive?
Those long-drives get your mind where it needs to be: the game.
November 4th, 2007 at 1:34 am
Curse is over.