The Panther swimmers are currently preparing to compete in the Summit League Championships in Indianapolis. While the Panthers aren’t expected to win the whole thing, anything remains possible.

From Rocky Balboa to “The Little Engine That Could” to The Longest Yard, our society is littered with underdog, come-from-behind stories, and as the phrase goes in football, any team can beat any other team on any given Sunday.

This applies to the Panther swimmers, because even though Oakland is considered a favorite in the Summit League Championships Feb. 16-19, anything can happen, any team can win, and as has been the case so many times before, the favorite can fall from grace as quickly as it ascended.

Maybe it’s as simple as the Golden Grizzlies, or any other Summit League team eating a bad pre-meet team meal the night before, maybe a team bus gets stranded by weather. Whatever the case, nothing is over until it’s over.

As cliché as it sounds, until that final horn sounds and the final score is announced over the P.A. system, the competition hasn’t been won.

Because of this, the Panthers cannot give up until the final race has been completed on the day of the meet Saturday Feb. 19.

I know from personal experience that if I had given up on my goal of becoming a journalist, the first time somebody told me the job market for journalists was going from bad to worse, I wouldn’t be writing this column nor doing what I love to do: covering athletic teams.

Looking back to the scenario at hand, however, shows that in all likelihood the Oakland University swimmers will win this year’s Summit League. That doesn’t mean the Panthers can’t give everything they’ve got in every race until they touch the wall.

The Panthers need to put their heads down next week, swim their best, and hope for the best.

Paying too much attention to the score will distract their focus away from the task at hand, which is swimming the fastest times they can to score as many team points as they can.

At the same time, however, using the scoreboard as motivation to swim faster would be a good thing. The Panthers just need to keep their focus on dropping times and not points.

Amidst all the chaos and ballyhoo of the conference championship meet, though, the Panthers will need one point to stand clear. On any given Saturday, any swim team can out-race and out-compete any other swim team.

Brad Kupiec can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected].