It is the yin and yang of life.

It is the the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat.

It is yet another reminder of reality, the randomness of circumstance.

It is a tale twice told.

The final pages do not read the same.

It is life telling us yet again, enjoy this instant, carpe this diem, one never knows what the next shall bring.

Anna DeBeer was not able to compete at the moment she’d dreamed of years ago, that she’d been pointing to forever.

Playing in her home town, for her home town team for supremacy in the endeavor she chose.

She is not the first.

Darrell Griffith made the same vow.

Playing for his home town team, leading his home town school to national supremacy.

The tales differ.

Life in chaotic, coincidental, haunting corrective balance.

Grif won his title a few miles north, though Cardinal red-drenched Market Square was Freedom Hall North that glorious ‘80 March weekend.

But, what would the outcome have been had the Cardinal star gone down in the semi against Iowa?

Happily we will never know.

Sadly we do understand for certain what happened with Anna.

Without their their leader, their catalyst, their soul, their star who was injured in the semi, Louisville was game against long time power Penn State but mustered not quite enough for victory.

It was frankly too much watching DeBeer holding back tears in an interview.

She normally has an eerily mature demeanor.

Her look on the court, determined, stoic, focused.

Who among us doesn’t understand that the exigencies of the day sometime present a breaking point?

Anna DeBeer’s came on the biggest stage, at a long awaited pinnacle.

Anna DeBeer, Long May You Run.

— c d kaplan