In sports, flashes of individual brilliance seem to be prized more than acts of collective success. Along the same vein, talent level seems to be valued higher than the willingness to work hard and the ability to work together. Preseason rankings typify this propensity.
Each season, in every sport, judgment is passed on countless teams before they ever step onto a field, court, etc. The judgments and resulting rankings are not based on how one feels the team will mesh, mature, and improve but rather, on the natural god-given abilities each player possesses. But, when a team “defies the odds” and goes on a Cinderella run like the Dallas Mavericks just did, it seems the ability to play hard and play together are at its foundation.
Courtesy UAlbanysports.com
In the past few seasons, the UAlbany Great Danes men’s baseball team has helped prove this point by overachieving (in relation to their preseason ranking) and playing together as one unit. Picked to finish fourth in the America East this season, UAlbany reached the finals of the conference championship for the third consecutive year. Defining their season isn’t as simple as that though.
Beginning the season on a daunting ten day stretch by traveling across the country to California to play San Jose State and Santa Clara University, then to North Carolina to play the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, UAlbany quickly learned a lot about what they had.
Kasceim Graham, a sophomore starter for the Great Danes who posted a 3.88 earned run average while going 4-2 in 2011, mentioned the opening game against Santa Clara as an early learning point for the team.
“The defining moment this season for us I think was our season opener,” Graham said. “We lost to San Jose State in 17 innings and we practiced in Albany inside for four months due to the weather. That was our first time being outside the whole year. We battled with them for the whole game and even though we lost, we knew and everyone else knew we were for real.”
Courtesy UAlbanysports.com
While non-conference play helped to set the team’s barometer for the rest of the season, it also produced key injuries to the lineup. Before the season even began, starting catcher Ralph Keppler was forced to undergo Tommy John surgery, causing him to sit out the entire season. Then, the third and fourth hitters in the lineup suffered injuries, causing them to miss all of conference play. Though devastating to the team’s lineup, the injuries also helped the team mature.
“I think this brought us together because we lost our 3, 4 , and 5 hitters but we realized that every game was going to be a battle and we would have to do anything to win those games,” said Graham. “We showed a lot of heart by making it as far as we did under these circumstances.”
The injuries also necessitated previously unexpected production from the UAlbany bench. When some players went down, other stepped up.
“The biggest surprise I think was the role the bench had,” Kyle Crean, senior starting shortstop for the Great Danes all season, said. “Every guy on our team contributed to our success in a huge way, whether that being delivering clutch hits or playing solid defense when given the chance.”
The injuries had one more effect: building team chemistry and camaraderie. The cohesion of individual’s into one undivided unit created confidence in oneself and each other. In the end, that camaraderie is what some players believed propelled the team to the championship game.
Graham described it best.
“We were together when everyone had us down and out,” he said. “We knew how good we were and it didn’t matter where we were put in the rankings or preseason standings. We knew we were going to battle every game and every team that faced us, after the game, would leave the field with more respect for us than when they got there.”
Battle they did, and after overcoming injury to beat top seeded Stony Brook University (42-12, 22-2) to reach the conference championship for the third consecutive year, the Great Danes proved that at times, one is greater than nine.
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