Interhall spirit matters
By BRIAN CHURNEY
Sports Columnist
The steely gray, drizzling sky provided an appropriate backdrop for the epic battle that was to take place.
The two teams, legendary for their own reasons, formed on opposite sides of the field. Both wearing blue, the gladiators from both teams went through their typical pre-game drills.
On one side were the men of Keenan Hall. Their 17-game winning streak and 2-0 record already had people whispering, "dynasty." From a distance, one could see that they were serious. Their intensity was easily apparent; their swagger was unavoidably noticeable. They crisply ran through their plays as their coach, fully clad in suit and tie, barked orders. Their exceptional organization and timing were fruits of weeks of hard laborious practice and intense training.
On the other side were the men of O'Neill Hall. They had no winning streak. In fact, they had never won. They had yet this season to add to their all-time scoring total of 13 points. But it was this lack of winning, this lack of scoring that made them dangerous. They were due.
One could see that they were confident, laid back even.
Most of the players had yet to put on all of their pads. Some were just arriving. Clearly the Mob was depending on the element of surprise. Instead of practicing any of the four set plays in their extensive playbook, they were adding new plays, trick plays.
Their coach by committee, consisting of whoever was in the huddle at that time, could be heard arguing over which new plays they would install. After deciding on scrapping any notion of adding new plays, they began to set their lineup for this war.
As the whistle indicating the end of the first games of the day blew, the two teams were headed to the field. Keenan had a look of stoic intensity. The Keenan coach stood under his umbrella held by what appeared to be an assistant reviewing his game plan. O'Neill, conversely, was full of chatter. Their coaches, standing with their helmets on, were looking for a tackle.
As soon as the first whistle blew, the Keenan fans started to ridicule O'Neill in an effort to distract this superpower and win the mental battle. But the O'Neill players would answer back.
After a quick Keenan touchdown, O'Neill unveiled its nearly unstoppable offense, highlighted by its secret play. On the first play, O'Neill attempted to unveil this secret play, but unfortunately fumbled the snap. In fact, every time O'Neill tried to unveil its secret play, the snap was fumbled. The half soon ended with Keenan up by a mere 13 points. One could sense that O'Neill would come out of halftime fighting.
Instead though, it was the Keenan fans who appeared to come out fighting.
They were ruthless, relentless and occasionally downright rude. What's more, it appeared that their trash talking had begun to get to the O'Neill offensive machine and stalled it. Screams of, "You're so bad!" were met with retorts of, "Tell us something we don't know." When one especially irritating fan shouted out, "Did your dorm even have tryouts?" He was startled to hear the response, "No, and we haven't had practice either!"
The O'Neill players knew this to be the unfortunate truth.
The game proceeded uneventfully until around midway through the second half when O'Neill engineered a 62-yard drive (highlighted by four 15-yard penalties) to the Keenan 15-yard line.
O'Neill, sensing pay dirt for the first time in two years, was forced with a difficult decision. Half of the team, still clinging to the hope of scoring a touchdown wanted to throw the ball. The other half, clinging to reality wanted to settle and attempt a field goal on first down to ensure points.
They went for six, choosing to try their trick play again, and subsequently fumbling. The clock eventually expired and Keenan ended the game with thirteen more points than O'Neill. It could be argued, however, that O'Neill won the game.
They left the field with smiles on their faces. They had held the mighty Knights to 13 points including shutting them out in the second half. They had made improvements, not throwing any interceptions (OK, so they only got four passes off). They had left the field with only one significant injury.
But the primary reason that one could consider O'Neill the victor was that its players and fans, or rather fan, understood the meaning of inter-hall sports. They understood that they were no longer playing high school football and had given up their dreams to play major college football and had fun.
Only after considerable abuse did they stoop to the level of the Keenan fans. They hadn't practiced and thus hadn't invested any more time than the fun time spent with their friends at the games. Their coach never yelled at them, scowled at them, or benched them.
O'Neill will be extremely lucky to win a game this year. In fact, they'll be lucky to score. Keenan, on the other hand, is well on its way to winning another championship.
However, this inter-hall player is proud to be part of the O'Neill team. Because sometimes, when you lose, you still can win.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, October 7, 1999
