After a Rare Defeat, Mount Hebron Had Nothing Left to Lose

Mount Hebron 7, North Harford 6

At first, it sounds counterintuitive -- a loss helping a legacy.

But for Mount Hebron's 13 seniors, who led the Vikings to their 11th straight 3A/2A state championship Tuesday with a 7-6 win over North Harford, a look back at their final season leads to that conclusion, at least in the mind of Coach Brooke Kuhl-McClelland.

To her, the Vikings' loss last month to West Genesee (N.Y.) will be remembered not only for its significance -- it ended a national-record-tying 103-game winning streak -- but also for its aftermath.

The seniors "were pretty shook up about it," said Kuhl-McClelland, who had not lost as a head coach. "The underclassmen who didn't have a lot of ownership of the streak, they handled it with a little more ease. They were a little more quick to rebound. When they announced the streak on Senior Day, you could see [the seniors] drop their heads a bit."

Once the seniors accepted the loss, they became that much more determined. Kuhl-McClelland said she believes that her team's underclassmen can look up to this group of seniors even more because of their approach.

"Hopefully, [future classes] will handle a loss with the same grace and poise that this Class of 2007 did," she said.

"I hope we're remembered as encouraging and leaders," said senior Bria Eulitt, who had been on the varsity all four years along with Jacqueline Doherty, Jacqueline Giles and twins Jill and Katie Rekart. "I hope we set a good example as role models for the underclassmen."

According to junior Alicia Krause, the seniors did just that, especially in the most difficult time of the season.

"They had never seen a loss, and they still acted the way they did, and it was amazing," she said.

Said Jill Rekart: "We want to be remembered as people who put everything we had into every game and helped keep that tradition alive for everybody underneath us and helped keep it going for everybody who played before us."