Who's In First League Management

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Thursday, March 12, 2009

To Storm or Not To Storm?

While watching SportsCenter this morning I caught the tail end of the Robert Morris - Mount Saint Mary's highlights.

In the game, Robert Morris' Dallas Green hit a game winner with 2.5 seconds remaining. Once the final second had ticked off, the Robert Morris students rushed the floor to celebrate a conference championship (and trip to the NCAA tournament) with their classmates. It was pure energy, joy and excitement. These students know that their brethren will have a tough match-up in next week's big dance, but for the time being they are on the top of the world.

Now, bringing it back to rec sports… is it ever OK to rush the floor in a recreational league game?

Instinctively I would say no. But there is a case to celebration.

First off, I don't know what your fan base is like, but at our games the gym is so empty you can hear crickets chirp. We occasionally have a fan or two, but nothing at all that would constitute a rooting section. So that means that those rushing the floor would be your teammates…. which is a different story.

Say you were in a tight match-up and one of your guys hit a shot with a second left to win the game. I don't think that your emotions would be able to be contained enough to causally stroll onto the court. I think in that case it is just fine to run out and celebrate with your teammate. Especially if that shot won you your first game of the season.

Keep in mind that you wouldn't want to be on the other end of an all out celebration, so keep it a little contained, but heading onto the floor, or if you are out there, hugging your teammate is perfectly acceptable. Again, contain it a bit, walk through the line to shake hands with your opponents, then continue the celebration on the sidelines, away from the other squad.

So while you might not have fans rushing the court and carrying you off on their shoulders, you do have permission to let your emotions get the best of you.

What are your thoughts on celebrating? Comment below.

Keep sporting!
- Who's In First

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go ahead and have fun out there. Storm away.

Anonymous said...

Hell.... if you hit a game winning shot, celebrate man.