If you haven’t noticed, high school teams are in the midst of championship season, and mythic story lines can be found everywhere.

Windham girls soccer this past weekend repeated as Class A state champions. While two championships in a row is impressive enough, the team came from behind in just about every playoff game and did the same against Edward Little High School on Saturday to claim the gold ball trophy. Down 1-0 in the early going, Windham scored five unanswered goals for the victory. The result is a credit to their community. The team, which is close-knit, has done themselves and the community proud, not merely by winning – since it’s inevitable one team will rise to the top – but by never giving up. Their tenacity showed at every turn, especially when they trailed Thornton Academy 0-2 in an early round of the playoffs. The Eagles clawed back to tie that game and went ahead in overtime. They had faith that if they all kept trying, something would eventually go their way.

The same was true for Cape Elizabeth in an equally dramatic five-set state championship win for the Class A girls volleyball team. Going into the tournament as the No. 5 seed, Cape beat fourth-seeded Scarborough in the quarterfinals and then top-ranked Greely in the semis. Both were come-from-behind nail-biters. “The road we took to get here is the hardest road you could take,” coach Sarah Boeckel said after her team beat the odds-on favorite Falmouth for the state title after losing the first two sets. Grit. Determination.

In Westbrook, equally as impressive was cross-country racer Halee Phelps, who wasn’t really on the list of possible winners for the girls individual title in Nov. 1’s Class A state championship. But she took the victory anyway. Her coach, Tim Even, could hardly contain himself after the championship race, exclaiming, “She ran one of the best races I have ever seen. Smart, aggressive, and pretty much the race of her life. Perfect way for a senior to go out.” There’s nothing like a cross-country race to test one’s ability to endure pain, and we admire Phelps’ dogged determination to run her best, which ended up to be the state’s best that day.

In Scarborough, the comeback storyline was again in full force when the Red Storm field hockey team earned a state title rematch against their old rivals, Skowhegan. Skowhegan, for the uninitiated, is Maine’s undisputed Class A powerhouse when it comes to field hockey. Scarborough narrowly beat them in 2009, but other than that, Skowhegan has won every state title since 2001. That’s a streak and a half. But the Red Storm weren’t intimidated and left it all out on the field, winning 1-0 on a goal scored by Kristen Murray with a scant 2.7 seconds left in regulation play. For sure, Murray, who was assisted by Maddy Dobecki, never gave up, playing hard right to the very end.

If you like sports, these are great stories. Come-from-behind state championship wins inspire admiration from the fans, an everlasting connection between teammates and personal pride that can propel these student-athletes into a life of never backing down and never giving up. It’s expected when a dominant team wins, but the truly heroic stories – the ones we remember – are of the Davids beating the Goliaths.

We know schooling is to be focused academics, but there are great lessons to be learned on the playing field, as well. While kids may never need to solve a quadratic equation in real life, they will need to display perseverance. And athletic competition is a great place to learn these character traits. (Surely, solving a quadratic equation requires dogged determination. Academic Decathlon is pretty inspiring, too.)

This sports season has netted great results for local teams and individuals, and we praise the coaches and players. Their hard work, dedication and perseverance reflect well on the communities they call home. We also thank them for being such role models for the younger kids. Yes, they may never win a state title with less than 3 seconds left on the clock, but they’ll surely look at the trophies in the case and strive for similar excellence.

We tend to look to college or professional sports to provide us with soul-satisfying Cinderella stories and drama, but the high school sports scene is filled with it. And for those eager for more, stay tuned this weekend, because the football title runs are revving up with perennial local rivals Bonny Eagle and Windham still in the hunt. Each compete on Saturday in the regional final games with Windham playing Cheverus for the Class A East title and Bonny Eagle playing Thornton Academy for the Class A West title. The winners of those games will meet for the state title game on Nov. 22. What a great storyline it would be if Windham played Bonny Eagle for the state title? That’d be a game for the ages. We’ve got our fingers crossed that more memories – maybe even a dramatic comeback – is in the offing.

–John Balentine, managing editor