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Furm's Take: It's What Happens After The Game
Senior Michele Schleich was distraught after Friday's NCAA First Round game, but she couldn't have predicted what would happen shortly afterward.
Union, NJ — Something unique happened in the bowels of Kean University’s Harwood Arena Friday night. It was the kind of thing that absolutely no one saw, but everyone should have. There was the Messiah women’s basketball team, fresh off its 44-65 NCAA First Round loss to Western Connecticut State University, filing out of the locker room. One by one they came, still dressed in the sweat-soaked uniforms they were wearing for the final time. There was just one problem. They were coming out of the wrong locker room. “You won’t believe what just happened,” a teary-eyed Mike Miller said after marching out of a door clearly marked WESTERN CONNECTICUT STATE and into another reading MESSIAH COLLEGE. “I just spent the last five minutes in their locker room watching our players pray for their team.” It was, by all accounts, an act that dwarfed what had taken place on the 94 feet of hardwood just moments earlier. Sure, Messiah had just lost an NCAA Tournament First Round game for the first time in program history. And of course, lone senior Michele Schleich had yet to wipe away the career-ending tears. The important stuff hadn’t even begun. “Messiah really caught our girls by surprise,” said Western Connecticut State head coach Kimberley Rybczyk. “In athletics, oftentimes it’s always about competing, about trying to beat someone. There’s not enough honoring your opponent. What Messiah did was very moving, very touching.” What Messiah did was the same thing the program has been doing for the last 10 years: Following every game, members of the Falcons ask the opposing team to join hands with them at center court to pray. “It’s been completely player-driven,” said Miller, in his 25th year as the Falcons’ head coach. “We had a team that wanted to do it one year, and it’s just been passed down from class to class. We as coaches really have nothing to do with it.” Some teams decline. Others do not. The Colonials — after going through Messiah to get to the NCAA Tournament’s Second Round for the second straight year — accepted. “We were very caught off-guard,” said Western Connecticut’s Melissa Teel, whose 18 points and 11 rebounds were two of the biggest reasons Messiah’s season had just ended. “To see such amazing sportsmanship, from a team whose season just ended? Of course we were going to join them.” And so, like so many other times, Messiah and its opponent formed a circle at midcourt, and prayed. Sophomore Kira Maier did the actual praying, breaking down at one point when talking about Schleich. “The (Western Connecticut) girl next to me squeezed my hand really hard when I started crying,” Maier said. “She whispered, ‘It’s okay.’ I just remember the gym being really, really quiet. Their fans were going crazy the whole night, but as we prayed, it was silent.” Sophomore Dori Gyori — who did her best to stop Teel — noticed, too. At times, Gyori said she wondered if other teams — especially secular schools like Western Connecticut State — really wanted to be there during these post-game invocations. She wondered, especially after lopsided wins, if the words rang hollow. Friday night, as Gyori and teammates joined hands with Western’s players, there was no wondering. “For some reason, I just felt God was there with us,” Gyori said. “Some of Western Connecticut’s players couldn’t get over it. I think they sensed what it meant to us.” Rybczyk was in that group. As she saw Messiah’s players making their way toward her in the corridor below the court, she was overcome with emotion. “I thought it was remarkable that they included our girls,” she said. “Everyone has their own beliefs and faiths, but everyone can come together through the common ground of athletics and sportsmanship. I told the first player I saw (Maier) that no one ever embraced us to that extent before. She was amazed that I said that, and she asked if they could pray for anyone on our team. It was then that I invited them into our locker room.” This time, it was Messiah doing the accepting. Gyori was the first one in the Colonials’ locker room, tossing out an ice-breaking “We’re back!” to stunned looks. “We had no idea they were coming in,” said Western Connecticut’s Karli Spera, who scored 18 points of her own. “It was so moving. For them to ask us what we wanted to be prayed for ... it was just an awesome thing.” Turns out, there was plenty to pray about. The Colonials’ Stephanie Slonski had suffered a knee injury during Friday’s game, while teammate Cheslea Mone was on crutches from a devastating injury earlier in the season. So Gyori — along with classmate Nicky Hess — led the teams in prayer. For a second time. “I couldn’t believe it was happening,” Gyori said. “I’ve never been in an (opposing) team’s locker room after a game. But it was so awesome. A lot of the girls were crying. When we walked out, it was unbelievable. I think God gave us our talents and our relationships for this moment. It was our purpose. If one Western Connecticut player was brought closer to God, it was worth it.” Of course, once Messiah was back in its own locker room, the finality of the moment set in. More hugs were exchanged and tears dried, as the 2010-2011 season was in the books. But it wasn’t without one, final act of togetherness, on a stage much larger than a basketball court. “At the beginning of the year, we made a pact to love each other in a way pleasing to God,” Gyori said, “and that only grew as the season went on. This was a very spiritual team. Everyone on this team is at a different level with their faith, but everyone on this team is open to God.” As Messiah exited the Western Connecticut locker room Friday night, one of the players asked, “Did we just lose?” Laughing through her tears, another responded, “No. We just won.” It was the correct locker room, after all.
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