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Greek Tragedies Reappear to Battle the Creator’s Game – Part 1

Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in , , .
  Well, just kind of a fancy way of saying “Life is not fair”. No, it isn’t. From Wiki:  Greek tragedy was a popular and influential form of drama performed in theatres across ancient Greece from the late 6th century BC. These were on my curriculum at Hobart in my freshman year but I was a pretty lazy student at the time so I’ll liberally use other sources if needed.  If it interests the readers, you can find some of these plays in the motion pictures of today, like Troy.  Tragic heroes often were brought down by a “tragic flaw” in the character.  And Greek Mythology played a role in these plays too. Capricious.  Sudden and unaccountable changes. We all hold out at least a glimmer of hope that at some point we might see that miracle that will start play up again.  But at 5:00pm Friday the 12th, we received word from what I believe to be the Governor’s Office (Florida State Governor’s office and the Florida State Chancellor of Education’s office), that all FHSAA activities would be suspended for 30 days.  The ruling had an immediate effect on one event.  Info came to me that a West Coast team, likely Riverdale of Ft. Myers, was playing Jupiter.  At least that is what the schedule says.  The game was scheduled for 7:00pm.  I’ve been told that the Riverdale Athletic Director decided to pull the team from the game.  The Greek playwright Euripides could have written that play., he focused on the Women’s stories. A few lacrosse games scheduled for that night were also cancelled and some were played.  Friday night is a big night for lacrosse in the state and unless a lengthy travel distance was involved the schools made a best effort attempt to play. Some schools, thinking that the season was likely to not be re-started, held Senior Days on Friday. The plan for Friday was that Victor Giol and Paul Kabalin, who are great contributors for us, would cover the hastily put together Oxbridge-Jupiter game (which unfortunately left Cardinal Mooney without a game that Friday, since Jupiter had been scheduled to go to Sarasota originally).  Seth Green would go to American Heritage-Delray to cover their home game with Belen Jesuit and i would be at Boca Raton for their home game against King’s Academy.  The middle game was one of the victims of the schedule so Seth joined me at Boca.  I had made a plea before the games Friday to applaud the kids no matter what and I’m glad to report that many took that to heart. Although I know who won those two games, it felt empty.  For the first time in a long time it didn’t seem to matter to me. The feeling I felt Friday was different, it was a ‘glass is half-empty feeling’, not a ‘glass is half-full’.  My readers know how rare that is to me when covering a game. It didn’t really hit me why I felt that way until the next day when I realized how cheated so many of us felt. At all levels of the sport. Cheated that Lake Brantley Alum Jared Bernhardt didn’t have a shot at the Tewaraaton Trophy (just because the NCAA has granted everyone another year of eligibility it doesn’t mean all the athletes will choose to exercise it). Cheated that my beloved Statesmen, having started 4-1 and looking at another potential NCAA appearance, would not keep me fixated to the live stream on Saturdays. Cheated that I wouldn’t see or hear about Bishop Moore hosting Ponte Vedra the next day . . . the home and home of Jupiter and Benjamin . . . the district top seed showdown of King’s and SA . . . Berkeley’s rise . . . the rejuvenation of Lake Highland . . . how Melbourne Central Catholic would handle their late schedule . . . the deciding match of the LHP-AH-Delray Girl’s Final Four trilogy and one final Caitlyn Wurzburger home game . . . And what a senior class we had.  Hess and Bohn and Dobson and Parlette and Chase and Lizzio and Arteaga and Brothers and Adams and Pounder and so many others.  It was a BRILLIANT class, as the Brits would say. It will have to be streaming going forward to see them at the next level. I also feel cheated about the programs that were going to take their best shot at a Final Four run, those teams that had been planning for this year for a few years, like MCC and Berkeley and King’s and AH-Plantation. Would Ponte Vedra finally get their national win, like Saint Andrew’s had years ago.  Came close against Gilman. No, life is not fair.   Part 2 Tomorrow – I’d like to write more tonight but I am drained by the markets today.              

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