It is 11:49 p.m. on Thursday, March 10, and I just returned home after watching the Luverne boys basketball team defeat a fine Benson team. There has not been so much excitement in the Luverne High School and in the community of Luverne for quite some time. The fan support at that game was huge. When was the last time you heard such an EXPLOSION of noise from a Luverne fan section when Brandon Deragisch hit a three-pointer followed by a foul. What excitement! I would like to give some highly overdue PRAISE to Coach Tom Rops on his accomplishments with this team! He has had his share of criticism by some members of this community, and from members of other communities. This is the way I see it: Many think that winning is something that just happens. That is just not true; it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to that sport to be successful. The greatest basketball coach of all times, John Wooden, writes in the book "Coach Wooden, One-On-One," "The competition was not so much against other teams as it was against ourselves — making us better. I knew if we improved, we would win more games, but winning was always the by-product of improvement. ... If we won, great — frosting on the cake. But at no time did I consider winning to be the cake. Winning has always been the frosting that made the cake a little tastier." I think that not only has Coach Rops gotten better over the years, I think we need to thank him for allowing these young men to improve and grow. Together as a team they have improved and winning was a by-product of that improvement. We are going to STATE! Again, we are going to STATE! Can you believe it! If we win, great — frosting on the cake. If we lose, that's OK — Coach Rops, you have given us a great cake! Terry Althoff Luverne teacher and former coach