Not sure how I got on this kick with underdog, but I think it had something to do with my time off during Thanksgiving.
While watching television late one evening, I happened across a nature program about bald eagles.
The technical term, or at least it was back in the college days during communication classes, of grazing through the television stations is how I found it.
It was pretty interesting. They had video of two baby eaglets - one boy and one girl - and it took the viewer through their early developmental period until they first started to fly.
Now, the underdog part came because the folks doing the filming noticed the female was a little more dominant at birth than the male. Thus, since the male eaglet was always getting a little less food and his sister also would take food away from him, they decided to nickname the male eaglet underdog. He was even smaller than his sister.
Eventually, the eaglets were ready to finally get out of the nest and try flying on their own.
Of course, the funny part was how the female was actually scared more than the male eaglet to jump and let it all go.
Soon enough, though, it was underdog who jumped out of the tree first and was able to spread his wings before his sister decided to take that initial leap of faith.
After thinking about that episode the last couple of days, it finally struck me that the Williamstown football team of head coach Terry Smith are kind of like that eaglet the producers dubbed underdog.
I talk to people from Williamstown and a lot of times they are amazed at how coach Smith and his dedicated staff continue to be a strong presence in the Class A ranks.
Sometimes in sports a community, or at least parts of it, feel they have the team to beat or a team that should win it all.
Then, lo and behold, that squad doesn't live up to "expectations" and they fall short of what most folks felt they could've achieved.
On the flip side, however, there are also times when a community knows they could have something pretty good and in the end the season turns out to be extremely special.
Despite losing to Wirt County twice last year, Williamstown got to work after falling to the Tigers in the playoffs in 2010 and it appears as though coach Smith's team hasn't looked back since.
At 7 p.m. Saturday the 13-0 Yellowjackets try to cap a perfect season by knocking off host Wheeling Central (12-1) in the Class A state title contest. The Maroon Knights have pretty much owned Class A football for the last decade and Williamstown is seeking the school's second state crown.
Obviously, I'm pretty sure if there was an official betting line the Yellowjackets indeed would be the underdog.
However, the only thing that is going to matter in the end is how much fight is left in the dog. I'm expecting Williamstown to be pretty hungry.
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com
