Worcester, MA – It was a story of embarrassment at Smith Hall 545 on Tuesday afternoon.
A young man, wearing a bright green polo, fell just as he reached the last step towards a clinching handoff with Professor Garvey.
This buck-toothed young fellow had been averaging a perfect 1.000 percent in handoffs on the year. It is a rather premature end for a season that had so much promise.
He descended the first pair of steps perfectly, his homework still in tow.
Next he had a few feet of flat carpet to maneuver through and he managed to do so, showing no signs of weakness.
But then he hit the final pair of steps. As he passed the first step, everything appeared fine, but at the last second his right heel caught the final step and he fell forward.
The power of sports: dreams can be made or can be shattered in an instant.
In a rather surprising turn of events, his supporters turned on him at the moment of failure, laughing and mocking his failed attempt to turn in the homework.
Then, as he jogged back up to his seat, he shot right back at his fans, proclaiming, “Yeah, that was funny.”
A rift between star player and fans this early in the season has almost always been a recipe for failure in the past.
It will be interesting to see if the two sides can come to some sort of an understanding soon, or if a change will need to be made.
Ryan O’Hanlon is a staff reporter for Exercising Style. He can be reached at his email address rwohanlon@exercisingstyle.com.
