COLUMN: Intestinal fortitude at 14C tourney

Nov. 1—Intestinal fortitude, otherwise known as courage and stamina, among other definitions as outlined in Webster's Dictionary, were on full display this past week in Hot Springs.

It was there, inside the walls that are the Hot Springs High School gym that a remarkable display of grit, perseverance , and as one slang definition of the phrase says, "pluck" played out before a full house of Class C volleyball fans.

The event, the Western 14C District tournament this past Thursday and Friday, involving six teams from one end of the Mineral County-Sanders County boundaries to the other, plucked its way to the apex of what sports can be about.

And a similar situation would unfold one day later on the adjacent, snow bordered, freshly shoveled stretch of grass known as the HSHS football field.

But the show that went on inside the gym during the volleyball event was legendary in scope by the time the last whistle sounded and a champion was finally crowned in the form of perennial powerhouse Charlo's Lady Vikings.

Fortitude was clad in the black and red colors of tournament runner-up Hot Springs, whose Lady Savage Heat were living examples of grit.

Courage and stamina.

Hot Springs came into the six-team melee as the third seed, and would finish the tournament as the second seed thanks to a stretch of four straight volleyball matches, including three contests with Charlo.

In a row.

One grueling, strength sapping match after another. From 12:30 p.m. to sometime around 8 p.m., the Lady Heat took stamina and courage to the max. They took on the Lady Vikings in their first match of the day, a meeting of the two unbeaten teams in the mix after the first day of high school volleyball's version of March Madness.

Charlo won that opening match via a 3-0 set sweep that vaulted them to the championship bracket. The loss dropped Hot Springs into a match versus Sanders County rival Noxon that began 30 minutes after their loss to Charlo. The Lady Heat won that hard-fought match 3-1, putting them back into the championship chase.

Thirty minutes after the win over Noxon, Hot Springs took to the court for a second match of the day against Charlo, the tourney's only remaining unbeaten team.

For Hot Springs to win the 14C title, they would need to beat Charlo twice, a daunting task and one they could not achieve during the conference's regular season.

Charlo swept that game 3-0, their second sweep of the day.

Then, because of the tournament format, the two teams met again to decide who would be the number one seed from 14C in this weekend's Divisional tournament at Manhattan Christian High School.

With two strength and energy draining matches already behind them for the day, Hot Springs reached into its fuel reserves and pulled off a stunning 3-1 win over the Lady Vikings, something no other 14C team had done all year.

Only Phillipsburg, Drummond and St. Ignatius of another conference had beaten the Vikings to that point.

But the Heat would not be denied. After dropping the first set and giving Charlo a 1-0 match lead, Hot Springs rallied back to win the next three sets, including overcoming an early 13-2 Charlo lead in the third set. They went on to stun the Vikings and force a third match between the two teams, the fourth straight for Hot Springs. Charlo had a brief rest in that stretch when Hot Springs upended Noxon to climb back into the title chase.

Clearly drained, the Heat climbed back into the ring with the defending champs, but Charlo jumped ahead early and held on for a 3-0 win that moved their season record to 13-4 and clinched a number one seed in this weekend's divisional tournament.

Hot Springs also advanced to the Divisional round as the number two seed from 14C after approximately eight hours of crowd-pleasing volleyball.

The gym that rocked may never be the same. Legends are born this way.

And if that wasn't enough in the fortitude department for the Savage Heat, their six-player football team, unbeaten on the year, overcame the tragic death of a teammate two weekends earlier and over-ran the boys from Valier, 40-6.

Several Hot Springs players were temporarily sidelined with what at first appeared to be serious leg injuries.

However, pluck, stamina and courage had oozed over from the gym and inspired the Heat football players to get up and return to the game. They also advanced to the next round of playoffs and will have another home game this Saturday at 1 p.m.

Courage, stamina, pluck.

Those qualities are the big winners.

And they are in abundance at Hot Springs.

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