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Stakes of the Game

Chapter Eleven: A Lot at Stake


And those six knew just what was riding on the Saturday night championship game. The state title, obviously, for themselves, for the coach they loved, for parents and community ... and also -- maybe even mostly -- for the teammates they'd battled against and played with every day for three months. It was almost as if now, the Lyncs -- a team nobody believed could win the championship -- must win. Because if the Lyncs lost now ... what would people think?

"The worst thing," Albert Timmer says of the six's collective mindset, "would be if we lose this and they blame it on 'Look what those guys did, we could have won.' I knew they were behind us on the bench, Bob most of all, being the big cheerleader. He wasn't doing that for recognition or anything like that. Bob had very little ego; he just loved the game.

"And, of all the people, he felt the worst about it."

As the jam-packed spectators anxiously awaited the championship game, cheerleaders from the crosstown Lynden Lions -- who earlier in the day had won to earn the fourth-place trophy -- began to chant derisively: "We beat them four times!" Clap-clap. "We beat them four times!" Clap-clap.

In the stands -- baking in temperatures that soared near 90 degrees -- Lynden coach Jake Maberry said to the fellow next to him, "These guys can't possibly win this thing. They've got no outside shooting."

The person next to him, though, was Henry Weg -- Gary's father -- who suggested that Maberry keep his opinions to himself, thanks just the same.

Although, once the game started, Maberry's words would seem prophetic.

NEXT

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● Part I: A Season
   of Change
    Prologue - March 25, 1976
    Lynden, 1976
    The Lyncs' Main Man
    A Team
    Surprise, Surprise
    Going to the Store
    
● Part II: Stakes
   of the Game
     Six Down
     Hard Choices
     The Morning After
     Don't Shoot, Don't Shoot!
     A Lot at Stake
     Digging Out of a Hole
     Magic, Luck and Destiny
     Epitaph
 
● Column: Years
    Later, Lyncs
    Still Stand
    Together