By GEORGE THOLE
November 10, 2011

I'll bet that most of you old-timers remember the footage prior to ABC's Wide World of Sports that shows the skier taking a horrible fall while cascading down the mountain.
That was the program's opening montage depicting the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

As someone who spent most of his life coaching football, I can attest to the fact that the thrill of victory isn't as thrilling as the agony of defeat is agonizing. Just ask my friend and head man at Wisconsin Brett Bielema or Stillwater's Beau LaBore.

Bielema's anguish was flashed on TV screens and newspapers across the nation after back-to-back last-second losses to Michigan State and Ohio State. LaBore's angst was confined to a much smaller theater after losing to Mounds View 19-18.

Unlike the Badgers, however, the Ponies turned in their equipment.

Stillwater outplayed Mounds View and appeared on its way to ending the Mustangs' season, but the green shirts found paydirt with a 5-yard TD strike on a perfectly thrown fade pass.

Veteran defensive coordinator Mark Elmer came up with a scheme that stymied the vaunted Mustangs offense. All-conference d-tackle Cartier Alexander caused havoc and the talented Nate Ricci sparked the offense.

Victory was imminent, or so I thought.

After the game, LaBore had the toughest job for several reasons. First off, he has to deal with a close loss in the biggest game of the season. He has to say goodbye to the seniors and he doesn't have a team to coach the rest of the playoffs. That leaves the coaches empty.

Since mid-August, this team has been together constantly and now the regimen and routine stops cold. As a player you get over the disappointment of defeat quicker because you go on to other things, but the coaches think what could we do better and why didn't we do this or that?

I know from experience that the coaches didn't sleep well after the season-ending loss. The worst thing about it is the fact that the season has ended.

Remember, there is only one team smiling at the end and you know who that is. The fact that the weather is perfect doesn't help, either.

Those last-second losses are numbing because victory is snatched on the very last turn of the card - and is especially severe if it brings about the end of the season.

Back in 1990, we beat Cretin-Derham Hall 17-14 on a final play field goal by Bill Dahler, set up with a sizzling run by quarterback Brad Orn. We were 4-2 in overtime games during my time and 2-1 during the Scott Hoffman years - but only one of those (a 16-10 overtime loss against Roseville in 2007) ended the season.

When Hoffman was a junior defensive end at Richfield, I coached him when rival Edina beat us 3-donut on a last-second field goal, but we crushed Tonka a week later.

Several people (four) brought up the comparison of Stillwater's recent loss to the 1986 state semifinal loss to state champion Apple Valley. Let me say that the Eagles were more talented than us, but we had them on the run and led 21-0 in the third quarter at Parade Stadium. The Eagles came roaring back and recovered our fumble on a fourth-and-inches play at midfield with under a minute remaining.

Well to make a painful story short, they beat us 22-21 on a last-play field goal. The Eagles crushed Osseo 34-6 the next week to claim the state championship. We had two all-staters in tackle Jeff Nelson and tailback Kurt Gunning on that team, plus quarterback Jim Hoy and fullback Dave Runk. I blew that one.

That was 25 years ago, sports fans, but it has stayed with me and still persists in haunting me during my twi-light years. You can rest assured that LaBore will carry this around for at least the next 25 years.

It's not so much the loss, but when it occurs. You just hope that it doesn't end the season or that you can score so many points the closing seconds don't matter.

I'm even taking the Kris Humphries-Kim Kardashian split up too hard, but I got over it in record time.