OUR OPINION: TRY, TRY, TRY AGAIN Cougars’ victory a life lesson

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For the first time in its history, the startup Misericordia University football team, which had endured nearly two full seasons of ego-bruising blowouts and some heartbreakingly close losses, did something Saturday that can inspire even those people who usually pay no attention to numbers on a sports scoreboard.

It won a game.

For the record, as time expired Saturday, the light bulbs on the blue board showed the home team had 40 points, the visiting Cougars from Misericordia 63. But the final tally is less impressive than all that preceded it. First came the university’s bold decision to start a collegiate football program in the Middle Atlantic Conference and then came the commitment from players to stick with it no matter what.

Since then, Misericordia’s athletic experiment has demonstrated what can be achieved through practice and upholding values such as patience and positive attitude — the kind of lessons that should resonate long after a student leaves campus.

This small, liberal arts institution founded in Luzerne County’s Back Mountain region by Catholic nuns, and formerly a place that only educated young women, put its fledgling football program on the field for the first time in fall 2012 and promptly got trounced. The opposing team received the first kickoff of the inaugural game and returned it nearly 90 yards for a touchdown. About 15 seconds had elapsed. In the end, Gettysburg College routed Misericordia 70-0.

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