This time of year can be brutal.
One minute, a team is celebrating a huge win, talking about state tournament brackets, dreaming about championships and what comes next.
And then suddenly…It’s over.
One bad inning. One unexpected loss. One game where the shots just don’t hit, the calls don’t go your way, or the momentum shifts at exactly the wrong time. And just like that, a season ends.
No warning.
No extra time.
No guarantee you were emotionally ready for it. I know…I’ve been there.
Scrolling through social media this week, I’ve seen all the emotions that come with this season of sports — the championship celebrations, the heartbreaking losses, the senior tributes, the “one more game” posts that suddenly became the last one.
And it got me thinking about something bigger than sports.
Sometimes things can look absolutely perfect on paper. Everything lined up. Everything seemingly pointing toward a certain outcome or opportunity. And then somehow… it still falls apart.
And if you’re human, your first instinct is usually to ask: “Why?”
Why didn’t this work out?
Why did this opportunity disappear?
Why did that door close when it felt like everything was finally lining up?
But the older I get, the more I’m learning something uncomfortable:
Not every opportunity that appears in front of you is actually meant for you.
READ MORE BELOW
And sometimes the hardest thing to accept is that disappointment and protection can look almost identical in the moment.
Athletes learn this early. You can do everything right and still lose. You can prepare perfectly and still come up short. You can think you’re walking toward the thing you wanted most… only to realize later it would have cost you more than you understood at the time.
And honestly? Adults struggle with this just as much as kids do. Maybe more. Because we convince ourselves that if an opportunity appears, we have to take it. We feel obligated to fix it, prove ourselves, push through it, or make it work — even when every warning sign (or our significant other) is quietly (or very loudly) telling us otherwise.
But not every open door is a good door. And not every setback is punishment.
Sometimes it’s preparation. Sometimes it’s redirection. And sometimes it’s protection from something that was never going to bring peace in the first place.
That doesn’t make disappointment easier. It still hurts when the season ends too soon and still stings when things don’t unfold the way you pictured them. But if sports teach us anything, it’s this: One loss is rarely the end of the story. Sometimes the thing that didn’t happen is what creates space for the thing that eventually will.
The next team.
The next opportunity.
The next season.
The healthier environment.
The unexpected blessing you never would have seen coming because you were too focused on what you thought you lost.
And maybe that’s the lesson hiding in all these end-of-season emotions this year…not every ending is failure. Sometimes it’s just proof that your story was always supposed to go somewhere else.
And while that may not make sense in the moment…
Eventually, life has a way of showing you why the ball bounced the way it did.
Until next week…
Read more from How the Ball Bounces with Bekka in the archives at www.mysaline.com/bounces.
About the author: Bekka Wilkerson is a lifelong lover of all things sports. Raised in a super athletic household it was no surprise when she too began to love sports at a young age. It seems like from the time she could walk she had a softball bat in her hands, but her true athletic passion came from all things Basketball. That love served her well as a Bryant High School Lady Hornet and ultimately earned her a full scholarship to play at the University of Central Arkansas – among many other adventures.
These days Bekka can be found running around Saline County with her husband, Speedy, or chasing one of her grandsons. She is also the Executive Director of The EMpact One Foundation, a Saline County Nonprofit Organization that helps young people stay connected to extracurricular activities through tuition assistance and equipment provisions.
Reach out to Bekka with questions and/or ideas about things you want to see in this column at [email protected] and learn more about The EMpact One Foundation at www.empactone.org.
