Spartans snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

I have been at SJSU since 2005 and have been following the sports teams every waking moment. What I have learned in four years is the Spartans never fail to disappoint. It does not matter what the sport is, every team has got my hopes up and failed to deliver.

No team has done a better job than the football team at sucking. In October, 2008, the Spartans were at the top of the Western Athletic Conference football standings, waiting for a date with the Boise State Broncos, a conference powerhouse. I was sure a win would catapult the Spartans past the rest of their opponents and give them the conference’s best record. The team played Boise State tough in the last two meetings at home, but like always, SJSU disappointed its fans with a 33-16 defeat.

After the loss the Spartans still had a 5-3 record and only needed two wins in four games to guarantee a bowl berth. But SJSU could not give the fans what they wanted and won only one game, including a torturous 21-0 loss to Louisiana Tech at home.

This was not the first time the football team did not live up to its potential. The two years prior, SJSU held fourth quarter leads to nationally ranked Boise State and Hawaii and managed to blow them both.

Still they aren’t the first team that has got me excited as a fan and blew it when it mattered. The swim and dive team did the same thing.

After losing its first dual meet to Stanford, the Spartan swimmers won the rest of their meets in the regular season. They defeated every single conference opponent, but when it mattered in the conference championship, they failed to continue their dominance and came in fourth.

The gymnastics team followed the same story. They dominated almost everybody in the regular season and went into the conference tournament with one regular season loss, but also managed to come in fourth. And It’s not just the big sports at SJSU that disappoints their fans. It’s all of them.

The teams that always do bad and are expected to lose find ways rip the hearts out of their fans. The women’s basketball team was horrible last year and I did not expect them to be good, but rival Santa Clara was equally bad. Going into the cross-town rivalry game, both teams were on losing streaks of the same amount. I did not expect SJSU to win, but with the heat of the rivalry, I thought they would keep it close. Rivalry games are when the weak overtakes the powerful, where the untalented step up there game and rise to victory. However, SJSU did not get the memo about rivalry games as they were blown out 56-39.

The volleyball team had a similar result against Santa Clara in 2006. The Bronco volleyball team was among the top in the nation, and the Spartans stepped up their game for the big rivalry winning the first two sets. They only needed one more to stun their nemesis. The team blew its lead and lost the final three sets to lose to their rival down the street.

Men’s basketball has continued the trend. In their first season under George Nessman, SJSU men’s basketball coach, the Spartans held leads and found ways to lose, most of the time at the buzzer. The worst of which came against Santa Clara. SJSU had a one-point lead with around 10 seconds left, after multiple outstanding defensive plays. All that resulted with the ball landing out of bounds after near SJSU steals and Santa Clara some how managed to get a wide-open layup at the buzzer to win 47-46.

In the 2006-2007 season, SJSU had several big upsets, including a stunner over Utah State. In 2008-2009, SJSU had most of the same key players with the addition of Adrian Oliver, a transfer from Washington. When SJSU went into conference play, and Oliver had just became eligible to play. Many Spartan fans thought that the team would finally rise out of the gutters and be at the top of the conference standings when the season finished. That never happened.

SJSU started conference play losing its first three games, two of those at home. They finished the season 13-17.

As I type this I am reminded about the hardships SJSU fans must endure. The baseball team had 7-1 lead over South Bay foe Stanford only to lose 9-8. This season the baseball team has been excellent at letting down their followers. The Spartans won their first nine games and had a game with nationally-ranked Cal-Poly coming up. But before facing the Mustangs  SJSU managed to lose to University of San Francisco, a team with a 4-10 record. The Spartans lost again the next day to Cal-Poly. Before the season, SJSU was ranked second in WAC pre-season polls and SJSU head coach Sam Piraro told reporters that he thought the team was underrated. All Piraro did was get everyone’s hopes up, just so they could get smashed. Last weekend, SJSU split a series with last-placed Sac State. The worse loss this season was a 10-0 defeat in rematch against San Francisco.

Being a Spartan sports fan is one of the most stressful, heart-breaking experiences one can go through.

This weekend, the Women’s golf team goes to the NCAA regional tournament. The team won the WAC Tournament by 19 strokes and has won every tournament they have competed in since October.

I expect them to finish 21st.

With the WAC golfer of the year Erica Moston on the team, it could be easy to get excited, but if you have been a Spartan fan for as long as me, you always expect failure.

So, good luck golf team, because you will need it to break this curse.