Brett Fera Arizona Daily Wildcat

The year that was, the year that could be

When did we become so spoiled? Was it before the UA men's basketball team lost in the first round of the 2004 NCAA tournament, despite both reaching the dance and winning 20 games for the 20th straight season?

Or was it prior to the Wildcat softball team's 31 straight wins to open its 2004 slate, only to fall in the preliminary round of the NCAA tourney, landing it outside the Women's College World Series for the first time since the late '80s?

Maybe it was when we forgot that sports aren't life or death, and that excessively complaining over a couple of early post-season exits isn't worth the ink printed on your admission ticket.

Maybe it was when we all decided that Lute Olson's teams are just simply not allowed to lose, and that we must not be at a real athletic school if our football team is weak.

From former football coach John Mackovic's disgraceful gridiron departure to the self-destruction of the school's two most-invincible teams, the 2003-04 UA sports calendar was as bad as it gets to most of the program's followers.

But just when things were looking up - when we thought it couldn't get any worse - every true UA sports fan learned what it's really like to suffer a big loss, and ultimately receive a swift backhand across the face.

McCollins Umeh, a freshman lineman and the first blue-chip football recruit of the Mike Stoops era, collapsed and died of an enlarged heart during a voluntary workout in June. He'd been on campus for less than 48 hours.

In July, Sue Candrea, wife of long-time UA softball head coach Mike Candrea, collapsed in a Wisconsin airport of a brain aneurism while traveling with her husband and the U.S. Olympic softball team, only to die just hours later. She'd been part of the UA family for close to two decades.

It's baffling to see how a 2-10 record on the football field and a couple of losses in a row on the basketball court can still draw up more discussion among the masses - the so-called fans - than the actual important losses the UA athletic family suffered this summer.

The year just plain sucked for UA sports, both on the playing field and off, and it should be invariably better starting this month.

Can we expect another good year from the Wildcat baseball team? Sure.

Will our men's basketball and softball teams rebound to finish further than they did a year ago? Probably.

But if they don't, it's still OK for us to show up and have fun. It's still OK for us to cheer them on, and its definitely still OK for us to stay past halftime of a football game, even if our Wildcats are losing by three touchdowns.

Most importantly, it's still OK for us to remember that sports shouldn't be about life or death. But if it is, it's also OK for us to just remember.

Brett Fera is a journalism and communication senior. He can be reached at sports@wildcat.arizona.edu.