Playoff basketball. Every team comes in undefeated. There are triumphs, tribulations and tragedies. Teams leave their all out on the court in the hopes of fighting another day.

There really is nothing else like the playoff basketball. No truer test of a team’s skill and heart. But after the rush of frantically checking scores from the two district tournaments over the weekend passed, I began to reflect on the regular season.

One word stuck out when I looked back on the season – heart.

Throughout the regular season Mineral County athletes came out, sometimes twice a week, and put everything into each and every minute.

Whether it was Superior senior Adam Kay recovering from an injury and coming back to the Bobcat squad and accepting a new role as the sixth man – as the player expected to come off the bench and create a spark on offense and defense to wrestle momentum to the Bobcats favor or to maintain that momentum.

Or the pack of underclassmen, freshmen like Pilar Cantrell-Field of St. Regis or Marissa Koke and Danielle Ewoniuk of Superior, who came out and not only assumed the responsibilities of players typically much older – but thrived in those roles.

Or a St. Regis Tiger basketball team who as another season was coming to a close did not have a victory on their record but still came out and played every single quarter as though a championship was on the line.

Or the Alberton Lady Panthers, who fought and fought and fought for every point and every victory. Who rose to challenges and consistently overcame those challenges.

Or a group of coaches throughout the county that sacrificed their time and energy to give the student athletes the best support and training they could.

Heart is something you don’t see every day. Heart is an intangible. You can’t train heart. You can’t practice having heart. It is something you either have or you don’t.

Only two teams from Mineral County remain in the hunt for a championship, but every single team played every game with the heart of a champion.