The Power of the Underdog

A big congratulations is well deserved to "Joose" the sand volleyball team I was a part of this summer; we won the championship last night! This was our second championship win as a team this year, but this summers sand league was definitely much more of a challenge than this spring - we were 100% the underdogs! Which brings me to the topic of today: The Power of the Underdog. 

Last night going into the playoffs our team was the #5 seed out of 15 total teams. Our first match was against the #4 seed - this match determined if we would make the playoffs or not (we were tied with them). We beat them pretty easily and therefore qualified for the tournament. Our first tourney match was against the #1 team who we never played in the regular season - they only lost two games all season! We were definitely nervous, anxious, but mostly pumped up! We beat them by hefty margins and advanced to the championship match against a team we barely beat in regular season play. We ended up winning the match and the overall tournament, but there was something different about our team. 

Last night there was definitely a different attitude amongst our team and I think our victories can be attributed to being the underdogs coming into the tourney. One cannot deny the power of the underdogs - just look at this past year! The New Orlean Saints won the super bowl over the invincible Indianapolis Colts and UNI had an amazing run in 2010's NCAA basketball tournament. 

Prior to the big match up everyone secretly tells themselves "we're probably going to lose today," but they don't make this known. To everyone it looks as though they were the favorites coming into the match. This demonstration of confidence, the outward showing of strength and determination is what propels these underdogs to perform so well! Last night our team was confident, we drew upon all our strength and we were definitely determined not to lose - we wanted to prove that we were the best in our league!

Aside from a great series of victories last night the lesson I carried with me is to not underestimate the power of the underdog! If you do, you will more than likely lose!

Go Joose!