Congratulations to the Central Alberta Buccaneers.
Wait, why are we congratulating the Bucs? Didn’t they lose and miss their chance at Alberta Football League championship?
The Bucs may have lost the semi-final, but they still had their best season of all time, and that is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, it is rather something to be proud of.
A season with only one loss (and that one by a narrow margin to an undefeated team) is something that the Bucs deserve to boast about. They made team history this season by defeating the Calgary Wolfpack and finished the regular season second in the league.
Not only that, but the Bucs stuck it out to the very end of the semi-final. Despite being down most of the second half, the team played hard and battled it out with the Stars until the last bitter seconds of the match.
Sport is not all about winning and losing. Yes, of course it’s disappointing that the Buccaneers didn’t make it all the way to the final but they still had a stellar season and we are proud of them for it.
We aren’t the only ones either.
As was shown by the incredibly full stands at ME Global Field on Sunday afternoon’s game and previous Buccaneers games, the team has an incredibly dedicated fan-base, one that was only strengthened by this incredible season.
A fan-base that surrounds any sports team becomes more than just a group of fans. It becomes a community that grows around a team.
It also becomes stronger the better the team does, which means that the better the team, the better the fans. They feed off each other’s energy and become stronger together.
For evidence of this, one need only look to Sunday’s game. When the crowd got going, so did the Bucs.
As much as players like to say that they tune out the roar of the stands, they feed off the energy of their fans. The last big drive that the Bucs had at the Stars’ end zone was completely fueled by their audience at ME Global Field on Sunday.
It shows that there is more to football, or any sport really, than the game itself. It is a community, a spirit, a being all unto its own.
And so, we congratulate the Buccaneers on their greatest season ever. We look forward to seeing them do it all over again next season. We are proud of them no matter what the final outcome was and we wish them all the best in the seasons to come.