Spartans Carry Heavy Load into Final
Submitted by Paul Mercier on Mon, 04/06/2009 - 16:46
The hopes and dreams of 16 young men have now been compounded by the hopes and dreams thousands of Michigan State University fans. This team now carries the weight of a depleted city and a downtrodden state on its back. OK, it doesn’t really carry that load, but in a way it does.
This year has been hard for America, and it has been nearly detrimental to the State of Michigan. Political scandals made the headlines in Detroit, unemployment is at an all-time high, and attending a Detroit city council meeting is like attending a Barnum and Bailey’s circus act. My point: this town, this state, this community, needs the Spartans to win tonight.
Tom Izzo has repeatedly mentioned that he hopes his team can be a “ray of sunshine on a cloudy city.” Well, if the Spartans can somehow find a way to defeat what is seemingly a professional basketball team disguised as a college unit, they will create an entire second sun hanging over Detroit.
No matter what tonight’s outcome, Izzo’s gang has already allowed the misfortunate to forget for a weekend. In a year in which I’ve seen my house worth plummet, my neighbors lose jobs, and a friend pass away due to a terrible disease, I too have put on a large smile for the past two weeks and it has been because of the Spartans’ success. How fitting would it be if arguably the hardest working team in college basketball won its third National Championship in arguably the hardest working state?
We can only hope that this storybook season has a storybook ending; we need it.
