Wes Ferguson

Friday night meltdown

A funny thing happened during the local football game last night.

Not so much funny haha, though. Picture bright stadium lights under a crescent moon. Bleachers decked in hometown red and blue. The green expanse of the gridiron. Electricity in the air. And it was beautiful, for a while.

I hadn’t seen my old high school play in a long time. The previous fall, I missed every single game because I was working Friday nights. Before that, I missed all the games because I used to have a social life. But this week, “our little football boys,” the Fighting Cardinals of Sabine, were playing their home opener against a team called the Rains Wildcats. Rains is never any good.

Both squads walked onto the field with 0-2 records.

And the home team seemed invincible. First play, sacked the quarterback. Second play, forced a fumble. Got the ball at midfield. Three snaps later, the Cards’ star running back, a kid named Bryan Chumley, broke a long run of at least 30 yards, scoring the game’s first touchdown. The crowd erupted.

The next time the Cardinals had the ball, Chumley again powered them toward the end zone. But on fourth down at the 4 yard line, a short pass bounced off the hands of a Cardinals receiver. It should have been an easy touchdown.

Instead, the visitors took over. Still fired up, the Cards’ defense pinned the Wildcats against their own end zone. The offense lined up to punt. But one too many defensive linemen was on the field for the Cardinals. He sprinted toward the sideline, but the snap beat him. A 5-yard penalty gave the offense a first down.

And that’s when things got interesting. At least from my point of view.

The home team’s intensity evaporated, and its confidence melted. Linebackers forgot how to tackle. Cornerbacks forgot how to cover. The first quarter was still under way — and the Cards were still winning, 6-0 — but mentally, they had given up.

Early in the second quarter, the visitors scored their first touchdown. Later, with around 25 seconds left in the half, Chumley fumbled on his own 15 yard line. The defense trotted back onto the field, demoralized. And they hardly put up a fight as the visitors’ running back scored again, as time expired.

The final was 21-12, visiting team.

The Sabine Cardinals have been losing games this way for a long, long time. I won’t belabor the point, because the last time I wrote about it, the story pissed off half my hometown. But when you expect to lose, you will find ways to fulfill the prophecy.

For my earlier article about Sabine’s losing tradition, I interviewed a sports psychologist named Trent A. Petrie. He’s a professor and director of the University of North Texas Center for Sport Psychology. Here’s what he had to say about the phenomenon:

“With a history of losing generally comes a loss of confidence — a loss of what we might call “mental toughness.” The athletes and coaches do not believe they have the ability to win and thus don’t push through tough times — often giving up instead.

“When in this mode, teams often do not communicate well, they don’t trust each other, they don’t put forth effort, they don’t believe in their leaders.

“Often you can see it in how they hold themselves physically (head down, shoulders dragging), how they behave in practices and competitions and how they think about themselves (“We’re no good … we’re only going to lose”) and their opponents (“We’ll never beat them”).

“It can have a strong influence on how they play each competition, and can take the fun out of playing sports.

“Turning around such a program starts with building confidence again — helping the athletes believe in themselves, helping playing and practicing to be fun again, helping them learn to trust each other and communicate.

“Such a change can occur in how the coaches work with the athletes, how they structure practices, the expectations they hold for themselves and the team or players, how they communicate positively.

“Coaches need to instill in the athletes the confidence that is lacking. They need to help that confidence grow, through successes in practices and ultimately in competitions. Community support is important — having the community believe in the athletes helps the athletes believe in themselves.”

One of these days, my Cardinals. One of these days.

Wes Ferguson

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