Winning a big sports game is magical. That seems like a broad statement, but it’s meant to be. You win a huge game, and all of the stress and pent up jitters you’ve been dealing with — for nine innings or two hours or four quarters or whatever length of time you were on the field — get released.
This high school baseball player consoled his childhood friend instead of celebrating a win
A beautiful moment of sportsmanship.
It is all part of the reason that makes sports celebration videos so awesome to watch. Just a bunch of people instantaneously changing from extremely focused and stressed to overjoyed and without a real sense of what to do with your limbs while you run towards your teammates.
That’s what happened in this end-of-game video from a Minnesota high school baseball game, a sectional championship between Totino-Grace and Mounds View, according to Minnesota site Bring Me The News.
The celebration video alone is good, but there’s something happening on the righthand side that’s especially notable.
That’s winning pitcher Ty Koehn hugging final batter Jack Kocon seconds after striking him out to win the game, rather than going to celebrate with his own teammates after a big win.
And he wasn’t comforting just any opponent, but a close childhood friend. Koehn told BMTN of the hug,
We are very close friends. Knew him from all the way back when we were 13. We were on the same Little League team. It was tough when we went to separate schools but we kept in touch.
”I knew the game was going to keep going or it was going to end right there. I knew I had to say something. Our friendship is more important than just the silly outcome of a game. I had to make sure he knew that before we celebrated.”
That’s just really, really sweet. No cynicism here. You can say “there’s more to it than winning and losing” a thousand times but it’s also beautiful to be reminded of that every now and then. High school athletes inherently knowing that and acting on it is amazing to see.
