Feb. 15: "The twist of fate"

Are some things just meant to be? Or not to be?

For high school athletes, timing is everything. You’re only there for four years, and there’s no telling where you’re going to be in terms of physical or mental development during that span.

To wit: I weighed 135 pounds as a high school junior on the lacrosse team when I really (and I mean REALLY) could have used some bulk, and then, as a collegiate ultimate Frisbee player, when sleek and svelte were the watchwords, I was pushing 160. Wrong place and wrong time, but there was nothing I could do about it. Trust me: I even tried creatine.

In sports, there’s an unwritten rule about paying your due, and getting your due once it’s paid. For most high school seniors, what you’re due is to get a starting role on the team in your final year there. It’s only fair, right You paid your dues. Time to collect.

Well, life doesn’t work like that, and neither do teams. Just because you’re in 12th grade and pushing 18 doesn’t mean some 16-year-old can’t take your spot.

When that happens, you have to choke down something that’s tougher to swallow than a Frisbee: your pride. But if you’re serious about playing a team sport, and serious about your team doing well, you do it.

Take Tracy High’s Matt Furtado and Darrell Reed. They’re both seniors and started some games as juniors. They probably worked hard all summer and into the fall preparing for the spotlight, to finally take their turns as the team leaders and star players. Reed’s even one of the Bulldogs’ captains.

But it wasn’t meant to be. Tracy coach Paul Demsher thought his team would be better off with someone else playing those starting roles. So much for that plan.

But what did the two do Pull a Terrell Owens and pout Figure they were better than the team and storm off? No way. They swallowed their pride and accepted their roles wholeheartedly, without a word.

And what happened? The team is much, much better than it was last year. And, if we’re to believe what we’re told about life and life lessons, those two young gentlemen are going to be much better off because of it.

And you know what? Sometimes it’s meant to be. Ask Reed, Furtado or classmates Chris LaMadrid, Michael Ligon or Matt Silva how they feel today, only a few hours after upsetting Lodi on Senior Night.

But what do you do if you have no control over your fate? What do you do when you deserve the spotlight and the attention — and something beyond your control takes it away from you

That’s what happened to West High’s Justin Phillips. This guy played on the West High basketball team for three seasons. He made the playoffs as a sophomore and had that taste of what could be teasing him through a dreadful junior season. It motivated him. It drove him. It pushed him to become, as a senior, the Wolf Pack’s leader as they marched toward a playoff berth.

Not only that, but Phillips was on pace to become the team’s all-time single-season scoring leader. He had all that going for him when, with two weeks left in his last season playing hoops for his high school, he came down with a bad virus. His teammate Bryan Tilos had a twist of fate take him out, too, when out snowboarding on the last run of the day he hit a trick but messed up his back. When his team needed him most, he couldn’t play, and there’s not anything he — or anyone else — can do about it. They both came back last night, but lost time is lost time.

So, what do you do?

Someone once said you have to accept the things you can’t change. It’s clichéd, but it’s true. Is it fair? No. But that’s how everything in life works. Sports, business and family.

You won’t like it, and you won’t always be able to do anything about it. But you do what you can, you push through it, and, eventually, you’ll get over it.

That’s called growing up. That’s called maturity. And if someone can get that out of playing a game, I’d call that a successful season no matter what else happens.