Time to stop lamenting what could’ve been and start celebrating what was accomplished
Just last weekend, the pages of the Centre Daily Times were full of local sports news, from Centre County wrestling teams crowning three champs at PIAAs to Bald Eagle Area bocce earning another trip to Hershey to Penn State wrestling crowning two Big Ten champs and more.
This week, the pages are much more bare.
Penn State hockey didn’t play its Big Ten semifinal game at Pegula on Saturday. Penn State basketball isn’t competing for a Big Ten tournament championship and Penns Valley, Bellefonte, St. Joe’s and Bald Eagle Area swimmers didn’t compete for state medals.
But after the initial shock and disappointment from the cancellation of almost every major upcoming sports event in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic wears off, let’s turn our focus to celebrating the success these teams and athletes had this season, instead of lamenting what could’ve been.
Yes, Penn State basketball beat a top-5 team in Maryland for the first time since 2016, beat Michigan State at the Breslin Center for just the second time in program history and cracked the top-10 in the AP Top 25. But most importantly, this team got Happy Valley excited about basketball.
Traffic was backed up bumper to bumper around the Bryce Jordan Center and Beaver Stadium on Saturday afternoons — in February — as fans scrambled to arrive early so they wouldn’t miss tipoff. The BJC sold out for basketball for the first time since 2011. And this men’s basketball season was the most watched in Big Ten Network history, fueled in part by the 34% increase in Penn State viewership.
Senior Lamar Stevens will finish his career just seven points short of becoming Penn State’s all-time points leader, but will always be remembered as the player who returned to the Nittany Lions after testing the NBA draft waters and helping to deliver one of the best seasons in program history — NCAA tournament or no NCAA tournament.
Penn State hockey’s 10-member senior class came into the varsity program when it was barely 4 years old, taking a chance and believing in what the Nittany Lions could become. As freshmen, this class helped the Nittany Lions capture their first-ever Big Ten Tournament title in 2017. Goalkeeper Peyton Jones was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. He and fellow freshman Liam Folkes — who scored the championship-winning goal — were All-Tournament selections.
In their senior season, this group of Nittany Lions helped the program win its first-ever regular season Big Ten title and earn the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament. While they didn’t get to see how their season would have ended, these players helped make Penn State a perennial Big Ten contender and national threat, and turned Hockey Valley into what it is today.
While Penn State wrestling came up short at the Big Ten tournament to Ohio State in 2017, two freshmen — Vincenzo Joseph and Mark Hall — avenged those Big Ten losses to become NCAA champs and help the Nittany Lions to their second in what would eventually become four consecutive national championships. The pair were critical members of a Penn State wrestling program that stands as one of the most dominant sports teams in the past decade.
They won’t get the the chance to bookend their careers with another national title. But teammates and coaches alike have spoken on end about the leadership qualities Joseph and Hall — who have both expressed desires to get into college coaching — have brought to the program, the effect of which will be present in the Lorenzo Wrestling Complex for years to come.
Rattling off a list of accomplishments likely isn’t going to do much to help ease the pain the athletes are feeling as their seasons came to an abrupt halt. But as fans, let’s not let the way these athletes’ seasons ended overshadow what they accomplished for themselves, their teams and for their sports.
They deserve that much.
