We should be proud of Eagles

Your View
Published: December 1, 2008

Facing the undefeated, fifth-ranked Woodbridge High School football team on Woodbridge turf for the Group AAA Division 6 Northwest Region football championship, the Osbourn High School Eagles
could have simply phoned the game in and called it a very good season.

On the coldest night of the year, they could have gone through the motions while playing a game that no one expected them to win.

They could have bowed to the task of facing a team with a star running back on the verge of setting the all-time Group AAA state record for rushing yardage.

They could have reacted in frustration when seemingly every call by the referees went the other way, each time crushing their hard-earned momentum.

They could have caved to the elements when they were forced to remain in the bitter cold at halftime while the Woodbridge team retreated to the warm confines of their locker room.

They could have given up when their star quarterback, Thomas Keith, went down with a foot injury.

They could have lost hope when Timmy Keith left the game with an ankle sprain, or when “Lucky” Whitehead was removed with an injury of his own.

They could have called it a day when Woodbridge took the lead late in the fourth quarter after an errant Osbourn pass resulted in a Woodbridge touchdown.

They could have simply allowed “the inevitable” to happen when Woodbridge completed a pass deep in Osbourn territory late in the fourth quarter, and they could have dropped their heads in shame after
the usual “coaches” in the Osbourn stands loudly, and embarrassingly, berated the Osbourn player for having the audacity to lose his footing on a cold and hardened turf.

They could have called it a night when Woodbridge had the ball on the Osbourn one-yard line and they were facing the prospect of keeping the region’s leading rusher out of the end zone.

And they could have panicked when they were faced with trying to move the ball from their own one-yard line with a long two minutes still left in the game.

They could have done each of these things. But they didn’t do any of them.

They overcame each one of those obstacles by showing the grit and determination that we have come to expect from a Steve Schultz-coached team. The Osbourn community should be very proud of
these young men. And these players should all be very proud of themselves for what they have accomplished in the face of adversity. But the season isn’t over yet, and we expect more great things from
them.

JOE NOVAK

Manassas