Nothing can diminish Chinook's season

WIBAUX — High school football is about a lot of things. But, three of the most important are winning, learning life lessons and making memories, all of which the Chinook Sugarbeeters did this season.

Chinook may not have won the state championship, and yes, they will have to settle for being the runner-up in Class C 8-man football after a 46-14 defeat at the hands of the Wibaux Longhorns in the championship game Saturday in Wibaux, but that shouldn’t diminish what the Beeters accomplished this season — not by a long shot.

Do the Beeters have every right to be disappointed? Yes, they do. They didn’t play their best game against Wibaux. They made uncharacteristic mistakes and they ran into a team on a mission. But even in defeat, even with the game out of reach, they kept battling, kept fighting, refusing to give up or give in until the clock struck zero.

Lesser teams, lesser men might have thrown in the towel, but not the Beeters.

Trailing 46-6 with just minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Chinook battled into the end zone one more time, cheered on by their adoring fans. The touchdown didn’t mean much when it came to the final score, but it showed the kind of character that has defined this team and this season.

“Things weren’t going our way, but we didn’t get on each other and we never quit,” Chinook head coach Scott Friede said. “We did the best that we could. We kept fighting, we didn’t look at the scoreboard and that is how I want to remember them today.”

Certainly, Chinook wanted to walk out of Wibaux with the state championship trophy but the Beeters have no reason to hang their heads. They simply ran into a team that was better and that is nothing to be ashamed of.

Losing a state championship game is difficult. I was part of a Havre High team that lost one in 2002 to Laurel 21-19. But honestly, it doesn’t matter that we lost. Sure, my teammates and I would love to be able to call ourselves state champions but I know now, as the 2014 Beeters someday will, it’s not necessarily the result that matters, it’s the journey.

Even though we forget sometimes, there are more important things in life than football.

The Beeters will never forget that they lost, it’s the kind of thing that tends to linger. But over time as they grow older and wiser that memory will get overtaken by others — ones of friends and teammates. This loss will fade but the memory of winning the Northern C Championship, clinching a berth in the state championship game in front of their hometown fans on a frosty day at Hoon Field and making friendships that will last a lifetime, never will.

They will remember how the entire town of Chinook drove to the end of Montana to cheer them on and support them. How they never gave in and never, ever gave up.

Chinook should be proud of its football team. Not just because they put together one of the greatest seasons in the history of Sugarbeeter football but more so because of how they did it, with class, with character and with a never-say-die attitude that you simply can’t help but admire.

“It’s the people,” Senior Lane Seymour said when asked what he will remember most about playing football for the Beeters. “I have loved playing with my friends and that is something that I will remember for the rest of my life. It’s so great having all these people from Chinook come support us and cheer us on. It’s amazing. There is no place like Chinook.”

The Beeters didn’t win the 8-man state title but, at the end of the day, it doesn’t mean they aren’t champions — and Seymour is right in the 2014 football season, there was no place or no team like Chinook.