— from KOMO News —
A boys basketball team on Orcas Island is learning that winning isn’t everything.
The team recently decided to forfeit a playoff game, which ended its season, and it was all to help a teammate and his family.
“I was kind of speechless,” said Corey Aragon, who is captain of the Orcas Christian School’s basketball team.
Aragon’s father, Robert, suffered a stroke last spring, and that’s when doctors discovered a hole in his heart that would later require surgery. It turned out, the operation was scheduled the same day as Corey’s playoff game. If the Saints won, they’d move on; if they lost, the season was done.
“I care about my team a lot. I care about my Dad,” said Aragon.
Despite everything going on, Corey decided to make the playoff game, which was going to be held in Bellingham.
The team was on the ferry to Anacortes when Coach Ryan Davis realized that Corey seemed a little quiet.
“I asked him …’Were do you want to be?’ I said ‘Do you want to be here with the team or do you want to be with your family and your father?’ And he said ‘Well, I’ll play the game,'” recalled Orcas Christian Coach Ryan Davis.
Davis asked Corey again what he really wanted to do, and that’s when Aragon changed his answer– he wanted to be with his dad.
“The team didn’t even hesitate, and they unanimously said ‘Let’s take Corey down.’ And I said ‘That means we forfeit, and our season is over’ and they said ‘That’s OK,'” said Davis.
READ FULL STORY: komonews.com/news/local/orcas-basketball-team-forfeits-ends-season-for-a-teammate
Wow! Just re-read Wordsworth’s “My Heart Leaps Up” – over 200 years old, but this young OCS team kept the lesson alive for us all. The child is father of the man. Would that the world today demonstrated such maturity. Wow. Thanks, guys!