In Every Life, A Little Rain Must Fall...

and in the case of last night's game, make that a LOT of rain!

As expected, the Mehlville Varsity Panthers came after our Varsity Cadets with a mission. There is a lesson in everything, and the take-away here is that winning is more about what one believes one can do than what one actually knows one can do. It happens everyday... people do the impossible to realize their dream. Cadets, THIS is what you ALL must never forget....even when the score is lopsided as it was tonight. It is at this point, that each of you AND each of us, your fans, must dig most deeply and push ourselves to allow our belief in ourselves, each other, and our combined passion to take us to places our minds and bodies could never imagine; places that our combined CADET SPIRIT might be able to go!!!

That is exactly what Mehlville did tonight. The fact is that they are NOT a better team, but the impact of their most recent meetings with our team combined with the week they just survived, forced them to utilize resources we did not take advantage of tonight. Keep in mind that this was a team we were victorious over during the regular season as well as the post-season last year. This was a team that was ranked eighth during the 2007 pre-season in the Post-Dispatch Large Schools Rankings only to fall completely out of Grace following their defeat in their season opener. To add insult to injury, they subsequently had to endure witnessing CBC who was NOT ranked during the pre-season, defeat the number one ranked school and earn itself a fourth place slot on the very same ranking poll from which they had just been dropped. A psychic was not necessary to predict the frame of mind we would be facing tonight. Instead of assuming a posture of defeat, they came to FIGHT!

However, [and let me warn you, that I have on occasion been accused of being an optimist!], in this cloud, like in ALL clouds, there is a silver lining. Even though the final score was without question painful to behold, there were without question some strong performances by many Cadets tonight. There is a silver lining in the fact that the season is still young and with trials come strength of character and determination, invaluable tools in reaching one's objective whatever it may be. There is a silver lining in the fact that this was NOT DeSmet or another of the MCC opponents we have yet to face. There is a silver lining in that losing this way at this time has the potential to strengthen our resolve not to allow it to happen again.

So to the CBC Varsity Cadets, your fans would like to say:

"Keep your heads up, and if you know that you truly came to play AND played with all that you had when you got to Klemm Field, then we applaud your efforts. If this was NOT the case for any of you tonight, we know that you know NOW what you need to do from now on. Whatever the case may be, YOU ARE OUR CADETS, WE ARE PROUD OF YOU, WE LOVE YOU, AND WE KNOW YOU WILL NOT LET US DOWN!!!!"

When It Has All Been Said And Done,

THIS STILL IS OUR HOUSE!