HOW WE SEE IT

Bulldogs, Tigers Seek Final Victory

Lots of factors go into creating an intense sports rivalry: geography, history, tradition, competitiveness. Make no mistake, the football teams at Fayetteville and Bentonville high schools have developed a pretty intense rivalry during the last few years.

Since the two were placed in the same conference two decades ago, they’ve played 25 times with Fayetteville holding a one-game edge in the series. In recent years, the two have engaged in some high-stakes, exciting contests, not the least of which was last year’s 7A state title game.

The Fayetteville’s Bulldogs won on an overtime touchdown and two-point conversion, 29-28.

Tigers Bentonville, the state’s most dominant football team in the past couple of years, have generally had the better of the series recently. They’ve won eight of the previous 10 meetingsincluding a nervewracking 24-17 victory earlier this season.

The “experts” (are there really experts on high school football?) think tonight’s state championship rematch in Little Rock will be another dog fi ght. Or cat fight, if you prefer.

The two student bodies spent the week getting ready for the game with pep rallies and posters.

The coaches have been furiously breaking down videos and working the players hard in practice, looking for any possible edge and preparing the teams for battle. Parents have, at various times, reveled in their child’s accomplishment and fretted over a potentially heart-breaking outcome.

Come Saturday night, though, it will be about the players, who will, we’re confi dent, represent their schools, their parents and themselves well.

It will be quite a scene in Little Rock (even though we’d prefer the game occur a little closer to home so more of us could attend). At the end of the night, one team will mob the field in joyous victory while the other will leave the fi eld in disappointment.

Either way, we hope the players (and everyone else involved) remember this: There are valuable lessons to be learned. For the victors, they include grace, humility and appreciation of those who made their success possible. For the defeated, they include perseverance, determination and resilience.

For everyone involved there’s the most important lesson of all: No pursuit is more noble than to be part of a group working together to achieve goals unreachable by the individual, and there’s no richer joy than to be part of something greater than yourself.

CASUALTIES OF WAR To honor the men and women in our armed forces and remind our readers of their sacrifices, the Benton County Daily Record is publishing Department of Defense announcements identifying Americans killed in active military operations.

Chief Warrant Off cer Michael S.

Duskin, 42, of Orange Park, Fla., died Oct. 23, in Chak District, Wardak Province, Afghanistan, from small-arms fi re whileon dismounted patrol during combat operations. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, N. C.

Staft Sgt. Kashif M. Memon, 31, of Houston, Texas, and Sgt. Clinton K. Ruiz, 22, of Murrieta, Calif., died of wounds suffered Oct. 25 when their unit was attacked by small-arms fire in Khas Uruzgan, Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan. Memon was assigned to the 96th Civil Aff airs Battalion (Airborne), 95th Civil Aff airs Brigade (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C. Ruiz was assigned to the 9th Military Information Support Battalion (Airborne), 8th Military Information Support Group (Airborne), also at Fort Bragg.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 12/01/2012

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