I left Crookston on a Monday afternoon, armed with six rolls of film, each good for somewhere between 25 and 30 frames. When I pulled back into town at 4 a.m. Thursday, I had used double that amount, plus a roll of color film, while watching the Crookston Central baseball team take its first state championship.

That amounts to literally hundreds of pictures of a three-day experience that I feel so fortunate to have seen — something I will always carry with me as one of the best memories of this job.

I usually only use one roll of film to shoot a game, but last week it was three rolls for each of the first two games and six for the championship and aftermath. I couldn’t help it — the tension just never ended, and there was always a good reason to keep the camera ready.

The first game gave me the shakes — I was a nervous wreck, more so than the rest of the tournament. I think I was just so hopeful the Pirates would get past the first round that it got me a little panicky. When Ben Parkin hit his three-run home run, my knees went to jelly, and they weren’t the same again that night.

It was real pleasant to have a few innings of confidence in Wednesday’s 9-3 victory over Luverne, the only tournament win for the Pirates that wasn’t by one run. That’s just one of many interesting points I can make about this team as far as their tournament performance; here’s some more:

They like to score with two outs; they like the fifth inning (at least in the first two games); they dance on the mound after victories; and they were the only team to score a run against Brooklyn Central in the tournament. In the title game, the Pirates gave spectators their money’s worth, with a 10-inning 4-3 squeaker over the Centaurs. The state championship was clinched when Jerrod’s grounder went through the legs of the second baseman and allowed pinch-runner Marty Aubol to score the game-winning run.

At that point, the tenseness turned to pandemonium, and no one was more excited than Jim Simon, head coach of the Pirates for the last 28 — or 29 — years. Simon has taken three different Crookston teams to state, but had never won in the first round until last week. To see him leaping about and grabbing people in celebration (athletic director Todd Selk said he’d never had such a hearty bear hug) was an absolute thrill.

It was obviously a thrill for Simon, as well as the players, but for all the seniors, it was their last shot and they did well with it.

Over the past three years, I’ve gotten to know the Central seniors fairly well. For the most part, they’re two- and three-sport athletes who contribute to every program in which they participate. On top of that, they’re nice guys. I like it when good things happen to good people.

It wasn’t easy to keep up with them, though. Since I couldn’t find the keyboard to my old word processor until two days after I returned, I had to fax handwritten stories to the Times after games. It was 1:30 a.m. for Tuesday’s game and 2 a.m. for Wednesday’s. I didn’t expect to get back so late after the championship, but then I didn’t expect it to go 10 innings. I didn’t start writing my story until after 4 a.m.

Nothing matters anymore, however. What matters most in my mind isn't that a new state championship trophy will sit in the case at Central High School. Sure, that's great, but what will always stand out in my mind is the joy on the faces of the coach and players and parents and fans who had never experienced that moment.

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P.S. Excerpts from songs heard on the four-hour drive home from St. Cloud Thursday night: "I’m walking on Sunshine ... and don’t it feel good"; "I’ve never seen such a beautiful sight"; "In every moment there’s a reason to carry on"; "Hold on to the night, hold on to the memories"; "Take a bow, the night is over ... you deserve an award."