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March 15, 2010

TVCC needs to put all distractions aside

Jayson Larson The Athens Review

ATHENS — SALINA, Kan. — If you’ve read the paper lately, you know a couple of things about Trinity Valley Community College.

They’ve got a pretty darn good basketball program. Good enough that the women’s basketball team came here this week to play for the school’s sixth national championship. The men’s team came within two wins of making it to Kansas, too.

Oh, and here’s something else — the college has got a few controversies swirling around that just won’t seem to fade away.

So what does that have to do, you ask, with the Lady Cardinals’ trip here this week?

Absolutely nothing. And that’s the way it needs to stay.

Teams that win championships do so only by learning how to keep moving foward in the face of adversity.

This team, if you don’t already know by now, has had more than its share.

The Lady Cardinals started the season with Bill Damuth, the longtime TVCC assistant who ascended to the head position before the start of the season.

Damuth was involved in the now infamous game in Brenham against Blinn, where he was arrested following some kind of altercation with referees and campus police officers after the final buzzer.

One of the team’s players was arrested, too, but those charges were eventually reduced. Damuth’s status, however, is still uncertain. He has been terminated by the school, and now he and his attorney are pondering a lawsuit.

Messy, especially around national tournament time.

And I’m not even going to touch the situation with the cheerleading squad, which has nothing to do with the basketball team but still has a cloud floating over Lakeside Drive.

But here’s the truth — there’s now absolutely zero the Lady Cardinals can do about that. Talk to them and you’ll realize they still respect and miss the man they call “Coach D.” But they also have continued to do their jobs under Interim Head Coach Elena Lovato and Assistant Coach Andre Bell. Lovato and Bell have done a tremendous job keeping this sometimes fragile team together.

The Lady Cardinals must continue to do what they’ve done for seven games under Lovato — play their hearts out and hold the rope for each other. So far, that effort has led to seven wins and a trip to their home away from home in Salina.

For this team, Salina can be the place dreams come true.

And where nightmares dissipate into the thin, cool midwestern air.

Jayson Larson is sports editor for the Athens Review.

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