If you have been a fan of the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs Varsity basketball team this year you have experienced two types of victory: There are the games where you have time to talk and visit with your neighbors in the stand, leisurely eat your popcorn, and relax as they are ahead by 20 points the entire game.  Admittedly, it almost gets a bit boring with that big of a lead as there is usually no doubt how the game will end.  At the end of the game everyone cheers, and it goes in the record books as a “W”.

Then there are those games where you are up by 2, down by 2 the entire game. Time outs are called while coaches try to out-smart one another with changed strategies. The fans are on the edge of their seat or standing chanting “Defense! Defense!” If you’re eating popcorn you don’t even know it because you are so intently watching the game. The anticipation of the turnout has your heart pounding as you have no idea if your team will come out victorious or not.  And then…. the game goes into Overtime! Sometimes even 4 Overtimes as both teams are fighting and playing hard to the very end.  When you win by 1 point at the end of the 4th Overtime that’s a “W” in the scorebooks – just like the game you won by 20 – but Oh the victory is so much sweeter for the team!  They fought hard. They were exhausted, thirsty and pushing themselves as hard as they could to last one more quarter, one more minute, often those very last seconds…. to come out on top.