By Quintin Harlan, Herald Bulletin Sports Writer
We’ve all heard messages throughout our lives about how one should take advantage of opportunities when they are presented.
We should “strike while the iron is hot” or “be ready to answer the door when opportunity knocks” and on and on and on.
Tonight the Highland Scots have an opportunity that only two other football teams in Highland’s 55-year history have had: The chance to play in and win a sectional championship game in football.
Think on that for a second.
Just three teams in over 50 years have advanced to the sectional championship game in football.
That right there should prove that teams that are annual fixtures in a sport’s respective championship are the exception, not the rule.
For every New York Yankees, L.A. Lakers, Pittsburgh Steelers, North Carolina Tar Heels or Detroit Red Wings; there’s many more Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Browns, Northwestern Wildcats and San Jose Sharks.
Highland coach Randy Albano was an assistant coach for the Scots with the team in 1983 that not only reached the first sectional title game in football for the school, but won the title as well.
That Scots team was 10-2 on the year with a 9-1 regular season record. In those days, the only way to make the state tournament was to win your cluster, which the Scots did, and that earned them a title game with the Carmel Greyhounds.
“We had an outstanding team,” said Albano. “We had a well-rounded football team, and we had an outstanding defense too. That was the key, our defense that year.”
Highland would beat the Greyhounds 34-14 for the title.
“Carmel was No. 3 or 4 at the time, we were No. 10,” Albano recalled. “They’d only given up 30 points the whole year.”
Now 26 years later, Albano sees one similarity between all three teams.
The coach freely admits he’s superstitious and believes in omens, and he’s seen one sign that occurred with the ’83 team and this year’s bunch: Each of those teams suffered a loss to Pendleton Heights in the final regular-season game of those respective seasons.
“We got upset by Pendleton in ’83, and that’s a little bit of a parallel (with this year), Pendleton also beat us (in 2005), and we beat Noblesville in the first round,” said Albano. “Each team is different. That team in ’83 had been successful and Pendleton beat us, and maybe that’s a good omen for us.”
If a loss could ever be something good, then this sounds as close to good as losing could ever be.
What does that mean for tonight’s game?
It only guarantees Highland a chance to compete for the Class 4A Sectional 13 championship.
That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.
What the Scots do with this chance is up to them.
Contact Quintin Harlan: 640-4835, quintin.harlan@heraldbulletin.com.
