Mothers and Sons

A very important chapter closed Saturday on the hardwood of McArthur Court in Eugene, Oregon for two mothers of prominent Oregon high school students. Four years of joy, disappointment, excitement, apprehension, rewards and failures ended when the seconds ticked down to zero and the arena buzzer cued the start of a victory celebration for a team from a modest Southern Oregon town while bringing silent moments of hollow reflection upon the dethroned champions from the suburbs of Portland. As the teams reacted in their respective manner, each mother was quick to seek out their sons. One mom embraced her two boys, who as teammates, celebrated with such a degree of emotion each were brought to impassioned tears. The other stood on a chair and gently hugged her giant of a son and kissed his temple as he held in his emotions of a dramatic loss and gazed down court watching his rivals celebrate wildly.

Kris Singler, mother of South Medford star recruit Kyle Singer, and Karen Love, mother of Lake Oswego's gift to UCLA Kevin Love, shared deeply emotional moments with their sons, but with South Medford defeating Lake Oswego 58-54 for the OSAA 6A Basketball Championship, their emotions were on the opposite ends of the spectrum. What the two women shared equally at that moment in time was closing the four year chapter of successes, setbacks and stresses of being the mother of an elite college recruit. As both mothers held their sons tightly during the post game celebrations, each may have be experiencing very different emotions in respect to the game's outcome, but very likely they shared very simular feelings as each reflected on her son's remarkable high school careers.