PUBLISHER’S DESK: QUIETLY, FROM THE PRESS BOX

I remember writing an exhaustive retrospective of the 1975 State B basketball title won by the Freeman High School boys on the occasion of its 40th anniversary. It included interviews with players and the team’s head coach, Ron Bennett, a reflection on the season as a whole — including a postseason win over despised Parker — and a detailed breakdown of the come-from-behind win over Dell Rapids St. Mary in that classic championship game between No. 1 and No. 2, both without a blemish on their record.

Among those with whom I visited at length was Bob Pidde, the best player on a team with a lot of close runner-ups, who all but willed the Flyers to that win over the Cardinals in a jam-packed Sioux Falls Arena — the home of the ‘B’ before the Barnett Center in Aberdeen took over years later. And I remember Bob telling me that, upon the team’s return to Freeman, they were “the toast of the town.”

A lot of things are going to have to go right for the Freeman boys to come away with the school’s second-ever state basketball championship next weekend — poetically, 50 years after the first — but it’s safe to say that the Flyers are already “the toast of the town.”

Nothing energizes and rallies a community like success in sports, and we’ve certainly felt that in the last week. And — full disclosure — this run by the Flyers is more personal to me than other great teams I’ve covered because I have a sophomore son who plays, a senior daughter who was cheering with the best of them in Mitchell on Tuesday night, and who sought out her little brother in the postgame congestion of the congregation to give him a hug and snap a selfie. Talk about a swollen heart.

But — also full disclosure — I’ve always “cheered” for the home team in high-stakes affairs, whichever that home team happens to be. I wanted the Rebel wrestlers to win late last month. I hoped the Freeman Academy/Marion boys would take the track title, and Scotland/Menno the softball championship, last spring. I yearned for the Phoenix to find their way to the Class 9AA football title game last fall, and was disappointed when they fell one game short — to Parkston of all teams.

Why? Because I get to know these kids, and I guess that always makes it personal.

One of the unwritten rules of sports writing is “no cheering from the press box.” And that certainly needs to be the case when you’re in the trenches, photographing what is unfolding and visiting with those who make it happen — or don’t.

But that doesn’t mean there’s not bias, and I own that, because I am a human built with emotion.

So, go Flyers! Own the Barnett Center court next week. Bring home the rock.

I’d tell you to make us proud, but you already have.