Monday, Dec. 8, 2003 | 9:46 a.m.
RENO -- Some of the toughest teenagers at Las Vegas High School visibly poured out all their emotions Saturday for the second time in six days, their tears streaming down harder than the driving rain starting to blanket Mackay Stadium at the University of Nevada-Reno.
This time, in the moments of shock following the Wildcats' 26-23 loss to Reno in the 4A State Championship, they owned their fate and gave it away in 48 minutes of heartbreaking football.
"I'm numb, like the other coaches are," Las Vegas coach Kris Cinkovich said. "We could have done this and we could have done that. I still say it came down to that we weren't ready to play mentally."
Nothing about Reno surprised the Wildcats, except for their own effort. They did not appear to be the same confident bunch that breezed through the past three rounds of the playoffs, looking shaken by the intensity and skill of the Huskies.
"It felt like they had more desire," Wildcats senior Jacob Robertson said. "Not everyone's perfect. Obviously, they wanted it more than us."
After the month Cinkovich's team endured to reach the state final, it is easy to see how that could happen, though the coach despises excuses and was quick to praise Reno's effort.
"It's very hard because I've never experienced this," Robertson said. "I've never had to get ready for something so serious."
The Wildcats said goodbye last Monday to fallen teammate Edward Gomez, some blankly staring down as his casket lowered into the ground following what was the first funeral many of them had attended. Gomez died Nov. 23, the cause listed as blunt force trauma to the head. Two days earlier, he collapsed on the sideline of the Sunrise Region title game and never regained consciousness.
"It's real, but you don't feel like it's real," Robertson said. "You don't want it to be real."
Two days before the funeral, the Wildcats galvanized in memory of Gomez and ripped Palo Verde, 41-7, in a state semifinal. In the previous three weeks, they overcame the loss to injury of starting quarterback Chris Gifford and starting tailback Eric Jordan. Las Vegas improbably seemed to improve every week after escaping a 40-34 scrap with Basic in the opening round.
Change, and the ability to adapt to it, marked the Wildcats' season. By Saturday, though, it appeared for the first time this year that Las Vegas did play with the energy to back the heart that carried it for so long this year.
"It's been long," Cinkovich said. "There have been a lot of ups and downs, and we're down today."
Yet through the pain of losing the title and an undefeated season, some Wildcats saw the journey, not the result, as the true reward of their trials.
"This is the best season I've ever had," Robertson said. "It's the best team I've ever played with. I really connected with a lot of these kids. There are a different variety of groups on our team. It was fun to get to know them."
For Copeland, a three-year varsity player and the lone Wildcat left on the field answering questions in the bitter Reno night, summing up his senior year of football was simple.
"It meant the world to me," Copeland said. "It meant the world."
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