- November 4, 2024
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I'm not sure we will ever witness a bigger upset than 1980s U.S. Men's Hockey team over Russia, but these will do for now.
We all love the underdog story, because we’ve all played the underdog role at one time or another in our lives. The way district tournaments are set up in certain sports, where every team gets a chance to play for the title and advance to the postseason, we can always expect to see a dominant team fall short of taking care of “easy business.” In the area, there have been many memorable upsets, but I’d like to highlight two inferior teams that have pulled off incredible upsets.
The Seabreeze baseball team won the most recent unlikely game, upsetting Deltona, who was 18-7, 11-1 in district play, on Tuesday, April 19, to advance to the district championship and to the regional tournament. The Sandcrabs had only won nine of 24 games this season, coach Anthony Campella’s most losses in any of his 25 seasons.
Deltona had beaten Seabreeze twice in the regular season. So, how did they pull it off? Some may say the Sandcrabs were just better on that day, or the Wolves suffered an off night. Who knows…
But then there are the 2014 Flagler Palm Coast Lady Bulldogs volleyball team, who had lost all 18 regular season games before winning the opening district tournament game over district favorites First Coast. While I agree that it’s highly possible to lose to a competitive team on a random day, I tend to believe there’s a little of this in all major upsets.
When I played junior varsity football, I arrogantly unstrapped my chin guard and folded my arms, because the other team couldn’t do anything on offense. Little did I know, the team had replaced the small running back with a bigger, stronger and faster player, and, the first time he got the ball, he knock me back where I rolled three times, and he sent my helmet 15 yards downfield. I took them lightly, and I paid for it.
Fortunately for us, we won the game, but not all dominant teams that take opponents lightly win at the end. And, when they don’t we, who love upsets, get to celebrate.
