"The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart."      - Robert Green Ingersoll

 The 28th Bill Batten Memorial Tournament was a rough one for our Ingersoll Express.
 The weekend before had us battling our way to the finals only to lose in a shoot out. Then on Thursday we were back at it for a home game against the Langton Leafs which end in a one sided victory 11-0 for the home team Express.
 Riding this wave of highs and lows we started the next tournament against the Mooretown Jr. Flags. Battling the early morning sleep from our players eyes we may have been a little too aggressive and ended up in the sin bin for almost a complete period. With running ten minutes short handed our Express could just not overcome and lost the match 2-1.
 With the tournament scoring wins and loses for periods lots of points were up for grabs. So even though we lost we still managed a few points.
 Then having a long afternoon rest with some of our boys back to school and others sneaking in a afternoon nap we were up against the Highland Storm.
 The Storm coming off a big loss against the home town South Huron team they were out for a tough game. The Ingersoll Express were not going to let the Storm get off their feet and launched a flurry of shots against the Storm net minder beating him with almost every shot. The Ingersoll goalie would only be beaten one time during the game leading our way to a 13-1 final.
 Coming into the third game of the tournament again our Novice Rep team would face a must win game to continue. I think with the highs and lows of the past weekend and all the hockey that our boys had played in the last week finally caught up with us. Never truly being able to get our skates under us we battled as hard as we could, but just couldn't turn the tide on the home team and lost the game 5-3.
 Entering the dressing room after the game was one of quietest rooms I have ever seen from heads hanging low and some tears being shed it made me realize that these kids take the loses right to heart.

"The most important lesson I've learned from sports is how to be not only a gracious winner, but a good loser as well. Not everyone wins all the time, as a matter of fact, no one wins all the time. Winning is the easy part, losing is really tough. But, you learn more from one loss than you do from a million wins. You learn a lot about sportsmanship." - Amy Van Dyken

So remember it is okay to shed a tear, the tear shows you care. 
 Do not hang your head , hanging your head makes it look like you are ashamed of your performance, hold that head high! with pride and know that you gave it your all and there was nothing left to give! That is nothing to be ashamed of.

So learn from your loss and play the next game with that new knowledge and strike fear into the next team that tries to give you a new lesson.