TALKIN’ PREP SPORTS: Addison volleyball, Holly Pond football make it fun to root for underdog

Published 6:00 am Sunday, November 1, 2015

One of the first rules you learn as a sports writer is there’s no cheering in the pressbox. Translated loosely, that means refrain from rooting for specific teams or athletes.

Whether readers believes it or not, that’s exactly how I go into every game or event I attend. Be it a win, loss or draw for the school(s) I’m covering, the way I write my story isn’t going to change in the slightest.

With that said, there were two teams Thursday night that were practically impossible not to pull for at least a little bit.

Who am I kidding? It was more like a lotta bit.

One was Holly Pond’s football program as it snapped the state’s longest active losing streak with a 49-40 stunner against Cold Springs. The other was Addison volleyball as it dug down deep and turned back top-ranked Providence Christian in five sets to claim the Class 2A state championship.

Here we are talking about two squads in completely different sports, competing at venues spaced more than 50 miles apart, but the wins both sought were just as meaningful to the kids, coaches and fans involved.

All throughout the Broncos’ 29-game skid, sprinkled with so many close calls it’s almost cruel, it was hard not to feel for a specific batch of boys. The Michael Lamberts. The Caleb Joneses. The Zac Nalers.

Basically, every player — and coach, of the paid and volunteer varieties — who poured their blood, sweat and tears into Holly Pond football and, for almost three full seasons, was only repaid in heartbreak.

Those guys were going to get their win eventually. They’d worked too hard not to. But for it to come in their last opportunity of the 2015 campaign and against a Cold Springs program much, much improved since suffering an even longer losing streak (35 games) in the not-so-distant past, it’d be hard to write a better script.

The celebration that ensued was well deserved, and the tears that flowed were understandable following a Friday night the program won’t soon forget. Knowing that they’re winners until football picks back up again next fall, perhaps the Broncos can use this triumph as the springboard for a turnaround under coach Mike Bates.

Or, at the very least, the start of a streak they wouldn’t mind having.

A winning streak.

Speaking of streaks, let’s shift the attention to Addison, which won two state titles during Holly Pond’s drought and added a third just after the Broncos reached the win column Thursday night.

So, how could these Bulldogs be considered the underdogs?

Easy.

Sure, they had the talent. Sure, they had the seniors. Eight, to be precise.

They just didn’t have the experience.

But what Addison lacked in experience, it more than made up for in heart, growing up on the fly to secure its fourth straight super regional title in a crazy Birmingham CrossPlex environment. Then, with the difficulty increasing exponentially, the Bulldogs were bullies as usual at the state tournament, bouncing St. Luke’s in a sweep and Providence Christian in a thrilling five-set comeback.

With an ace from MVP Callie Brewer, the Bulldogs were left to say goodbye to their No. 2 ranking and hello to the state’s No. 1 spot in 2A.

What a way to close out Addison’s third state title in a row and eighth overall.

The only person to have a hand in more of them than former coach Pam Wilkins? First-year head lady Kayla Woodard, who was part of the program’s first three-peat as a player and tacked on two more crowns as an assistant before adding No. 6 on Thursday.

But this was more about the girls who kept believing in themselves when so many others hadn’t given them a chance.

Kinda sounds like a certain football team we’ve been discussing, doesn’t it?

For one Thursday night, Holly Pond, with its one win, wasn’t all that different than the state championship squad at Addison.

Both stared different shades of adversity right in the eye and didn’t blink. If that’s not worth rooting for, then I don’t know what is.