By Brittany Burke
It seems like wherever I turn lately the idea of the unexpected and underdog teams has been prevalent, in both the world of professional sports and the mini universe of CCSU athletics.
This past weekend the CCSU Blue Devils softball team made the postseason Northeast Conference tournament against all odds. The team was picked sixth in the coaches poll at the beginning of the season and wasn’t expected to see postseason play.
But why would they have been? If the past is any indication the team wasn’t going to make it. But the team fought through and broke multiple records, while proving to not only the CCSU community, but also the Division I NEC community, that they are contenders and they should be noticed.
In recent professional sports news, the Mavericks swept the Los Angeles Lakers, the two-time defending champions in the second round. The Mavs found their stride and upset the basketball community (at least Los Angeles’ basketball community, I still have hope for the Celtics).
In hockey news the Tampa Bay Lightning virtually came out of nowhere in the NHL Eastern Conference playoffs by first eliminating a Sidney Crosby-less Pittsburgh Penguins team. The Lighting then forged ahead and swept the top-seeded Eastern team, the Washington Capitals, once again foiling any plans Alexander Ovechkin had of hoisting Lord Stanley into the air.
As a side note, while the Bruins played well all year, did anyone really expect the team to come and sweep the Philadelphia Flyers after last postseason’s humiliating crumble? I wasn’t and I’m a Bruins fan. So in my eyes the Bruins, as well as the goalie Tim Thomas, are also underdogs (especially after he took a back seat to Tuukka Rask last season).
Going back farther into March Madness, the UConn men’s basketball team wasn’t a lead contender for the top spot, but they fought odds and became number one, while the favorite women fell short.
All of these surprising upsets, wins and playoff berths are a sentiment to what hard work can accomplish. The underdogs should never be counted out (does anyone remember the New York Giants wonderful defeat of the New England Patriots?) and the more these teams come out of nowhere, the more people should sit up and begin to pay attention to the underdogs, whether it’s a team or specific athlete.
So going into summer, as the school year comes to an end and the paper stops printing until August, all I can say is this year I’ve learned that sports are unpredictable and all of these underdog stories are just proof to that fact.