One of the many social benefits of high school is attending a series of sporting events, primarily football and basketball. But what happens when the atmosphere of a huge sporting event, win or lose, spills out into the next day into the classroom?

For this instance, let’s look at the school days following the football team’s heartbreaking loss to the Graham Kapowsin Eagles in the first round of the state playoffs at Lake Stevens High School.

In the second half,senior running back Kayshawn Mounarath caught a bobbled pass and was pushed out of bounds at the 3 yard line. Soon after, the Vikings fumbled the ball at the 8 yard line, Graham-Kapowsin responded with a 92-yard touchdown run on the first play and practically destroyed any chance of keeping the game close before halftime.

“There was a really big high and a really big low within a short amount of time,” senior Nicholas Pena said, who watched the game from the front row of the student section. “I think the fans were blaming the refs because they thought he was down, but there were nothing they could do.”

The Vikings lost that game 38-31, ending any hopes for the 14 departing seniors of one last shot at a state title. “You gotta give credit to those kids,” P.A. announcer Rodger Anderson said. “It’s hard to come back from something like that.”

After some time to think about what happened, the students on the football team went from standing in the rain to sitting in the classroom, where some people were still feeling the pain from that game. “You could say that yeah, my enthusiasm changed after that game ,” senior lineman Jevon Morris said. “Football was a big motivator for me, so when I came back to school, I struggled in class a little bit.”

When these three were asked if they noticed any difference in the student body, they all said no, but with one exception.

“Considering that I’m friends with a lot of the football players, I felt a lot of emotions from them,” Pena said.

“There were a lot of disappointment from some of the players, especially the seniors because that was their last game.” Morris added.

Regardless of what role you play in experiencing a big sports loss like this one, it is important to realize that this will be one of many obstacles and speed bumps that students will face while at high school to get ready for the real world.