Delaney: It's tough when there's tears

Post-game interviews can be interesting for sports reporters. I'd even say the interviews can be difficult.
Players and coaches pack up their bags and equipment quickly. No one sticks around very long, especially the visiting team.

The biggest post-game challenge is covering a team at a season-ending loss. It's not easy to talk to a high school athlete in this situation, especially girls who more often than not are visibly upset. There is nothing scientific to the observation and it's not to say a young man wouldn't be moved to tears by a loss. Girls generally show emotion differently from boys.

Little Falls senior field hockey player Alaina Demeree had a few tears in her eyes when we talked the other night. The Mounties just lost a tough game, 1-0 to Class C Cazenovia. Demeree, a senior defender, was open and honest and gracious in defeat. Two thoughts go through my mind when I have to approach an athlete after such a loss. Part of me empathizes with his or her disappointment, who can't when you put your heart and soul into something and it doesn't work out? My cynical side says there will be worse days in the athlete's life and it isn't worth crying over a high school game.