Craig Daily Press

John Vandelinder

John Vandelinder's columns appear Tuesdays and Fridays in the Craig Daily Press. E-mail him at jvandelinder@craigdailypress.com

Craig — Has it really been this long?

My, how time flies.

It seems like just a few months ago I was getting off that plane in Hayden after a few layovers, nervous to meet the people in Craig I would soon be calling my neighbors.

Sunday officially marked the end of the Moffat County High School sporting season, and the end of my first full season as a staff writer.

I was fortunate to land the job I now have, getting paid to hang out at games, to talk to athletes in their best — and sometimes worst — moments.

Before I came here, I was covering high school football — South Florida style — on a part time basis, while I juggled one and a half hour drives to call minor league baseball games for the radio.

When I came here, I thought I knew it all.

Four of the five schools I had covered won state championships, so I got used to the feel of winning.

I thought I knew what high school sports were all about.

I was wrong.

Covering the Bulldogs has provided me with many firsts.

I never even knew wrestling was a high school sport.

I had no idea the buzz that could be felt when stepping into the Epic center pool in Fort Collins during the swimming state finals.

Or, what it was like for a team to lose more than it won.

I couldn’t understand how Kip Hafey kept telling his players on the football team that they were winners even though they went 3-7.

When I got here, I figured winners win games.

But now that I’ve had time to reflect back on the first season under my belt, I know how wrong I truly was.

The student athletes and coaches at MCHS taught me there is so much more to sports than winning.

Like getting a team to believe.

Sure, the Bulldogs aren’t the most physically gifted athletes and winningest coaches I’ve ever seen, but they are head and shoulders above what I initially thought a “winning” team really was.

The athletes I tried to interview in years past would generally allow me the time it takes to get from the field to the locker room as my only shot at a little conversation.

They were so wrapped up on winning nobody else mattered.

And now I know how much of the sporting world they were missing. Getting the chance to spend as much time as I have with the Bulldogs athletes, on and off the court, I realized each one of them is a person first.

They aren’t all athletic freaks of nature, hell-bent on winning.

I see football players volunteering up and down the downtown streets.

I catch MCHS swimmers hanging out at the City Park pool, helping groom the future of the sport through the town’s youth.

High school wrestlers helping Bad Dog wrestlers and college wrestlers helping high schoolers.

I never saw somebody get so behind an athlete after injury, like I saw happen with JT Haddan.

Nobody cared if MCHS won again; they just wanted to know there prodigal son would return.

Head out to Yampa Valley Golf Course on any given day — it is after all the summer hang out for the so-called MCHS jocks — and you will see Bulldog athletes planting flowers, picking up range balls and washing carts.

Each that I have approached has been generous to give me their time, trusted me with personal phone numbers and even played a few holes with me.

Heck, I’ve shot hoops with boys basketball coach Steve Maneotis’s crew, shagged flies with the boys of the diamond and done a ninja dance with the girls swimmers in the middle of the state championships.

The sports world is different here in Craig.

The teams are teams.

They raise their team money by fundraisers — a feat that will remain until the athletic budget, as paper-thin as it is — expands.

But when I’ve had the opportunity to witness a game-winning basket, goal or run, it means so much more now.

People don’t always win.

Teams don’t always win.

But it’s how you hold your head up after it’s all over with that matters most.

And for that, MCHS is head and shoulders above the rest.