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Good Afternoon!

In the church something we try to cultivate each Sunday is a ‘divine moment’…Either through the spoken word, worship, or even fellowship. To facilitate a bonding moment not necessarily between the individual and the established church/denominational body…but between the individual and the Lord. It can be a reconciliation, it can be pure adoration but it is something which becomes tangible in our memories and hearts.

A ‘divine moment’ being something you will always harken back to in perhaps a troubled time or random moment and lift you to another plain of thought or positive emotion. The ‘divine moment’ can be the culmination of something long endeavored or a stepping off point to a new path.

Whether spiritual or secular one can easily draw illustration from both.

Last night was night was full of ‘divine moments’. Sections of time and history sliced for  individuals to store and access for a lifetime.

Don’t laugh, everything, and everybody is different. What is joyous, momentous, to some may not ever register with another.

Jim Singiser saw his Arroyo team win its first outright Mission Valley League title since 2004 and give up its fewest number of points in league play, 19, since that same year.

Might not mean anything to you, but Singiser is a defensive coach. So Friday was special.

“A long time coming,” he said.

Ulises Ochoa’s 2-yard dive for the game winning touchdown gave Burbank a 28-21 victory over Burroughs and its first piece of a league title in 37 years.

If you know Burbank, then you know its not normal when it comes to this football game. The locals grow up playing together for the Burbank Vikings, the players from ‘The Hill” share the malls and restaurants and countless other haunts with “The Flatlanders”…Every boy dreams of putting on the blue or the red and having the ‘divine moment’ Ochoa did in the fourth quarter. The historical entrenchment of being part of this game.

At San Marino it was one for the ages in regards to the Titans victory and what was accomplished.

For D.R. Moreland, an alumnus who tasted all the thrills of the Bill Maloney days, it was being the head coach who snapped an 11 year losing to streak to Temple City and vaulted San Marino into the Rio Hondo’s upper division. For operating a defense that has given up 14-points in a game four times this season, but never a point more.

For Mike Mooney, that’s an easy one isn’t it? While he has never uttered word one in the negative about his departure from his alma mater, the thrill of the victory was all over his face, and the faces of the rest of ex-patriots from TC serving on the SM staff.

For Stevie Yortsos, who did have help from many others, it was otherworldly how he became the ‘guy’ in every situation who stepped up.

The perpetual refrain out of Titan-ville the last year and a half has been: “Yortsos is a beast”

“And what rough beast, its hour come round at last…Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born.” — William Butler Yeats

This is Yortsos, his hour, his ‘divine moment’ (3 touchdowns, 107-yards rushing, 1 interception, the key 53-yard run)… The one, whether he plays another down of football ever again, will always warm him, will always come to him, will always birth hope and rebuke doubt about anything else he may face in life.

For La Canada’s Dan Yoder it will always be the night, November 13, 2009, with the clock pushing 11:P.M., he made “The Call” and his team came through.

For Rocky Moore it will always, always be (and we are not saying there won’t be others) the moment he was on the edge, with an entire season on the line, when he found Michael Arkfeld for the winning deuce against Temple City…at South Pasadena High School on a most surreal evening.

For those close enough to see the ‘divine moment’ came without the prodding of coaches or administrators when before the last play was run the Spartans and Rams players stretched hands from across the line of scrimmage and shook them.

And even for those belonging to Temple City, and even Burroughs,…there is a ‘divine moment’ to be found. It’s found in the same place we find our character and integrity when the unthinkable happens on the football field, or life, or both.

The bell tolling doom can seem like the end in many ways, but can be made ‘divine’ when used as a starting point for a new journey, a new beginning, as the ground zero where you keep your head up, eyes open, and thrust your shoulder into tomorrow.

Last night, was the weirdest night…of all the nights we’ve been doing this at “The Mid” and the old “SGV Weekly”…But even framing it as weird makes it too common…As I drove from San Marino to South Pas (found parking…talk about divine?)…This may sound really strange…but I felt blessed…I was graced with a ‘divine moment’ to cherish.

This ‘divine moment’ (last night) is our history, it was given to us, don’t trivialize it by saying it was just football, just a game, no it was more than that.

As time passes it will enrich us, and always draw us closer.

Now put that in your pipe and smoke it…

Stay thirsty my friends…

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