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Panthers have earned congrats

Congratulations to the Buckeye Local football team.

Perseverance and hard work during a brutal season on and off the field has been rewarded.

You fought through adversity and showed a strength you might have not even known you had.

You took seven straight weeks of failing to win a game and made a successful Week 8.

You have taken some really bad times and made some good times.

You have practiced week in and week out working for that win.

You had a dose of real life when teammates Tyler Miller, Logan Barsch and Devon Marques were injured in a car wreck.

Miller has been cleared to play, Barsch was on the sidelines and, in a story by Times Leader sports editor Seth Staskey, Marques is making daily improvements and looks to step foot back inside his house, hopefully, by Thanksgiving.

And, yes, prayers are still appreciated.

You have looked in the mirror and seen not only yourselves, but your teammates.

You have looked through the windshield to what is ahead and not through the rear view mirror dwelling on the past.

You have not quit when the easier thing would have been to turn in the pads.

Congratulations.

The 22-12 victory over East Liverpool Friday night was more than just a win.

* As I have said in the past and will many more times, football coaches do not meet and talk and meet and talk and meet and incorporate the game plan hoping a 37-7 loss Friday night is the outcome.

Coaches do not call a play seeking a hole made by the offensive line as big as a your office only to have the handoff exchange fumbled.

Quarterback sneaks don’t always work.

Sometimes your team is beaten by a better team.

The team on the other sideline wants to win, too.

* I saw what has to be a Top 3 in sideline warnings (not in a good way) on Friday.

* Bad days will always end as do the good ones.

* Teams do not prepare for the next game in a way that is equal to their record.

* Do your best not to give your opponents bulletin board material.

* Our values cannot change daily like the weather.

* The fact the NFL officials did not review the fumble in St. Louis late in the game that was recovered by Seattle, but given to the Rams is unacceptable.

* Beyond unacceptable was Sunday’s ejection of Carolina’s Luke Kuechly.

* Accountability is more than a word – it’s a way of life. It is something that teammates do for one another, not to one another.

* I just want to congratulate all the adults who belittle kids on chat forums. You should be really proud.

You all need a heavy dose of Peyton Manning’s humbleness.

In fact, read this.

* Melanie Bailey stopped to help someone in need – someone she didn’t know.

She did so approximately 800 meters short of the finish line at the Eastern Dakota Conference’s Cross Country Championship in North Dakota.

Danielle LeNoue was on the ground thanks to a torn patella tendon (rather painful). Many runners passed her, including teammates.

But, not Bailey.

The Devil Lake High School student-athlete stopped to help the Fargo South High School student-athlete on her feet.

Once Bailey figured out how much pain LeNoue was in, she carried her about 300 meters via piggyback.

Bailey finished the race (some eight minutes after the winner) after help arrived to take care of LeNoue.

Go ahead, adults, keep whining.

And, as you whine, don’t hide behind a screen name. Put your name to the words.

(Mathison, a Weirton resident, is the sports editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times and can be contacted at mmathison@heraldstaronline.com, followed on Twitter at @MathisonMike and is on the radio weekday mornings from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. with Joey Klepack and from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Saturdays on WEIR-AM)

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