Turns out some people noticed that South Medford wasn’t a popular choice when we did the Mail Tribune Pick-It Line in Friday’s paper. Everyone predicted Roseburg would defeat the Panthers, save for guest picker Dick Entinger. Apart from going against the home-town Panthers — and what would be the point if we all always took local teams? — it seemed reasonable to go with Roseburg. They were unbeaten, ranked third in the state (one spot higher than South), playing at home and going for their third straight win in the series.
Well, of course the Panthers won. In a performance that showed enormous will and character, to say nothing of talent, the Panthers rallied from an early two-touchdown deficit for a 28-14 victory. Good for them. That’s a triumph those kids will remember for a lifetime.
Naturally, people took note of our predictions and once the game was in hand let us know about it. That’s fine. It’s all in good fun. Our reporter on the scene, Kris Henry, was in the fish barrel and was roundly targeted for ribbing. He took it in stride. “To the victor goes the spoils,” he emailed us well after the excitement of the evening quelled.
I heard we got needled on the radio and that Mike Johnston, an assistant with South, used our picks as a motivating tool in the locker room. Mike coached Eagle Point years ago when all but one of us picked against his team; that night, the Eagles won, and Johnson tossed his EP shirt to a reporter and told him to give it to Greg Stiles, the one picker who sided with Eagles. One coached texted me early this season when he was on the bus home and I was in bed: “You should have picked us,” he wrote, adding a smiley face.
It’s all good. We have fun with the predictions and they’re followed closely by a lot of readers.
On Facebook late last night, I noted how we had missed so badly. One of the responses was, “If (Roseburg coach) Thurman Bell won’t give us blackboard material, then I guess we’ll use the Mail Tribune sports writers.” It was followed by three exclamation points, a “Haha” and “Go Panthers!”
Another admonished us, “NEVER pick against a panther!!!!”
A third was more level-headed. Of course, it came from a former reporter of ours who has been in the trenches when a pick went south, or South. “Hindsight is 20-20,” he reasoned.
Truth be told, we were excited for South and its victory, just as we cringe a bit when things don’t go well for a local team. We don’t brazenly cheer for or root against teams, but we’ve all been here a long time and have ties and relationships within the community. Objectivity is important to us, but, heck, we’re human. So, here’s to South for a great win and here’s to the Pick-It Line, an inexact science that we’ll delve into again next week.
