When you are a UTEP Miners football fan, when that team is the team that represents the university that you love, you have plenty of opportunities to think about losing. UTEP should offer a Doctoral Program in Losing. Most of us longtime fans could test out and be awarded the degrees, especially if there were verbal exams before boards of fellow Doctorates in Losing.
But, today, I thought I would narrow the topic a bit. First, we have to acknowledge that there are such a thing as winners and losers. They can change over time and one can become the other, but we have to agree that there are losers. Everyone is a winner and everyone has experienced losing. But, there are the Golden Childs and there are the Born Losers. And what is also true is that there is a certain amount of human nature that reverts to the animalistic behavior of pecking and picking on the “loser” to drive them out. We would love to deny it, but there is that part of us that is more than ok with it. Now wait a minute! I’m not talking about a regular old day to day person having a tough time. No, they get all of the right emotions and thoughts. Nope, I’m talking about the “born losers”. It is almost like they like it and deserve it, but we know that is just bs. But, still. There is that feeling. What a loser! Contempt and so much more.
Are the Born Losers genetically predetermined or did they learn to be losers. Nature versus nurture. Native American burial grounds, the Curse of the Bambino, or living down to the standards and expectations of a tradition of losing. Who knows? My question is, can a born loser change that, or it the answer in the name? Can UTEP Football ever be anything other than it has been for more than a few years once in a Blue Moon?
Of course it can. The world is full of stories about the hopeless finding a way. Or a way finding them. They are the very best stories of all, and we love them. Even when we are proved wrong. More so, maybe, because it reinforces our having faith in turning the things around in our own lives. Not today, necessarily, but a some time when we need it them most. I hope our worm gets turned sooner than later. We’ve been down for so long we have to look up to see the soles of our feet.
But, we continue to look up, and build character, perhaps. We are, after all, Miners.
I hate that it is all that I do lately but here is more downer shit. Dr. Natalicio has been in charge for more than a quarter of a century at UTEP. Ask yourselves what the football has been like during that period. Now, do you think she hasn’t heard anything before? She teaches kids. Football is a diversion for the students, and since they don’t care, she reads that quite clearly. It doesn’t matter to anyone except silly fans. I know exactly how it works on a campus. Leadership comes from the captain of the ship. What do you think she does, what her job is? To run all of UTEP’s different departments and set the agenda, tone, and measure the results. Literally, she and doesn’t ask Stull, she tells him the agenda, makes sure he understands how she feels about it, and has watched the results. Since Stull was here as long as he wanted to be here, he was obviously doing exactly what she wanted done. She is the President and she has never been a rubber stamp figurehead. She is a very strong leader. Any teacher out there knows which principals run a tight ship, one that gets it done in all areas, academically, athletically, cafeteria, and sparkling shiny floors. Any one on that ship not performing at a level of expectations will be gone. Nothing personal. They are cold blooded when it comes their ship. Oh, and the people who work there, love it and the Captain. They shine just like the floors. It is pretty obvious to me that Dr. Natalicio has weighed the different aspects of the Athletic Departments role and is comfortable with its level of performance. As for it being the face of the University as seen across the country, ask yourselves how many of her students come from anywhere other than El Paso county. Nope, for her, and to those she is serving The Best Bang For the Buck recognition for the degrees she hands to her kids is all that matters. Everything is perfect in Minerland. Even the football players are getting good grades.