I consider myself fortunate to have attended a small school in rural Nebraska. There were only 23 people in my class. People often think of small schools as lacking opportunities. My experience was that while there were not as many extracurricular activities as the large schools, each one that they did have was available to everyone. This allowed me to explore a variety of sport, vocational, and artistic pursuits. By far, my favorite was speech and drama.

When I was a junior in high school, our team was deep and talented. Throughout the season we had done well at each meet with most performers earning medals, including several golds. At our district meet, we had more events qualify for the state competition than any other school, giving us a realistic shot at a state championship.

This was 1986. There were no giant flat screen TVs with real time posting of individual results or team standings. At the state meet, everyone gathers in a large ballroom at the end of the day. Medalists are announced for each event, culminating in a rundown of the team standings.

Our team had several runners-up but no champions. Coming so close but falling short was bittersweet. Our coaches kept reminding us that we were facing our toughest competition and should be proud of our showing.

Finally, the team standings were announced. Our frustration at just missing gold in our own events was compounded as other teams were called out in the countdown to number one. When the runner up team was revealed, the brave faces of our coaches were starting to show the disappointment and frustration which they had exhorted us to overcome.

But we had been doing the math. While we had no gold medals, we had more total medals than any other team. If we had not yet appeared on the leaderboard, there was only one spot for us to land.

We were already celebrating as “The 1986 Nebraska Class C state champion in speech and drama is Elkhorn Valley High School!” erupted from the ballroom speakers.

Everyone sharing the satisfaction and glory of achieving excellence as a team was more gratifying to me than had I won gold in my events. Everyone patting me on the back would not have felt as good as the screaming, hugging, and crying shared by a team.