It never fails. There’s always one. A voice that rises above the others like a bird ruining a night’s perfectly sweet slumber.

Show me a field, arena or court featuring prep sports and I will show you a “fan” who believes the louder they are, the more reasonable they sound. The sad thing is the worst of these “fans” are not the teenagers in the student section — who have puberty as a perfect excuse to be obnoxious, but choose to be hilariously entertaining instead — but rather the so-called “adults” in the stands who are supposed to be supporting the athletes.

I’ve seen kids have to hold their parents back from trying to fight coaches. I’ve seen refs followed to their cars by people who are supposed to be role models. I’ve been on the field and seen athletes’ heads weighed down by embarrassment.

To the shouters, yellers, complainers and whiners, as someone who is on the court, let me be the first to burst your bubble and inform you that refs can’t understand what you’re saying from up there and coaches ignore your demands. The only ones who hear exactly what you’re saying are the ones who could recognize your voice in a sea of millions: the kids playing.

Perhaps if you weren’t too busy yelling at coaches or referees, you’d notice the players shaking their heads in embarrassment.

Let me save you some time. No, I’m not telling you how to raise your kids. No, I don’t have kids of my own. Yes, I’ve attended prep games featuring people I dearly love. Yes, I’ve seen incorrect calls or suspicious coaching calls. No, I’ve never felt the need to yell from the stands at a referee or coach. I feel bad enough having the job of interviewing high school coaches after a loss.

There’s nothing easier than yelling about something you don’t fully understand. A coach knows his or her team better than you do. Just as you are too far away in the stands for a referee to hear exactly what you said, you are too far away to see what a referee sees.

We tell these kids to have fun and remind them it’s just a game, but then we act as though there is nothing more important?

Either pick up a clipboard or a whistle or sit down and cheer for your team. Then, win or lose, you tell whatever athlete you came to see how well they did.

The life of an athlete is a road of letdowns with the occasional heavenly spotlight. The last thing they need letting them down are relatives in the stands.

While they are on the court, let’s allow the players to be the main attraction.

Not many people picked the Panthers.

The ones from Ellsworth or from Northern Iowa.

But both teams, rich in basketball tradition, upset the No. 1 team in the span of three days to advance in their respective tournaments.

“I think a lot of people didn’t think we could get to this point,” Ellsworth head coach Tyler Morris said. “I think for a lot of people, us getting to that section final was nice. I think a lot of people didn’t think we could get it done. When we did, I think the excitement grew.”

The Ellsworth Panthers went first.

Winning an emotional, hard-fought game against top-ranked and previously undefeated MACCRAY in the Section 3A final Thursday night in a packed gym in Marshall, Ellsworth will be making its fifth consecutive trip to the state tournament.

“I said to several people that it’s so addicting to get to the state tournament,” Morris said. “It’s so much fun. I just wanted us to be able to get back there this year.”

But the weekend of the Panther wasn’t over yet.

Following an opening-round victory against UNLV at roughly the same time the Ellsworth Panthers were winning on Thursday night, the Northern Iowa Panthers lined up across from the No.1-overall seeded Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday.

Those Panthers, too, pulled off the upset.

“It was a great weekend of basketball,” Morris said. “We had a couple of Panther teams knocking off the No. 1 teams. I was watching the game here (Saturday) at home and loving every bit of it.

“I got text messages from quite a few people saying, ‘Are you watching this? Are you seeing this?’ One of my friends texted me and said, ‘Man, this is a great weekend for you.’ It was a fun weekend of basketball.”

Not everyone loved the UNI upset.

In ESPN.com’s tournament challenge, nearly 43 percent of the 4.78 million brackets had Kansas winning the title. That included President Barack Obama.

Less than one percent (.9) had UNI in the Sweet 16.

Not even Morris, who earned his degree from the Cedar Falls, Iowa school in 2004, had the Panthers advancing.

“To be honest, it completely messes up my bracket now,” the coach said. “I had Kansas winning the whole thing. I had my UNI Panthers winning that first-round game. I guess I didn’t give them much of a chance in the second game.”

Ali Farokhmanesh changed all that.

The UNI guard took a risky shot, and made good.

Leading by one point with 35 seconds remaining — and 30 on the shot clock — Farokhmanesh was wide open.

And put up the shot.

“That’s one of those shots, when it goes up, you go, ‘No, no, no, no no,’ but when the ball goes through you go, ‘Yes, good shot,’” Morris said. “He’s a shooter and shooters have to shoot. I kind of liked what he had to say after the game, he said, ‘I figured I better shoot it before we turned it over.’”

UNI — which led for nearly the entire game — moments before looked as if it was going to be succumbing to the powerful Jayhawks. A full-court press seemed to rattle the otherwise calm, cool and collected Panthers.

Instead, Farokhmanesh sent them to the Sweet 16.

“That was really fun to watch,” Morris said. “They had the pace of the game right where they wanted it. Actually, you saw at the end when Kansas pressed, UNI didn’t look very good. You wonder if they would have been able to establish that pace earlier in the game if UNI would have been able to hang with them.”

Next for the Cinderella Panthers? Michigan State. Most brackets are already busted, so why not see how far UNI can go?

“It all kind of starts on the defensive end for UNI,” Morris said. “They get after you and they’re a lot more physical than people expect. They do a great job of defensive rebounding. They understand the pace of the game that’s best for them, but it all kind of starts on the defensive end. If they can keep that going, they can beat anybody, like they showed.”

Just like Ellsworth.

After beating a MACCRAY team that some “experts” had predicted to win the state title, these Panthers are poised for another run at a state title.

And if Morris’s Panthers are in the same situation as the UNI Panthers, do his players have the green light?

“Um,” he said, pausing for a moment. “If it goes in like that one, sure.”
 

In some free time Wednesday afternoon, I was able to do something I seldom have time to do — watch TV.

I used to be a frequent viewer of ESPN’s "Around the Horn" or "PTI," but it seems with a busy work schedule, afternoons are spent at the Daily Globe, and not in front of my TV.

But Wednesday, I was able to catch a glimpse of something amazing. So amazing in fact, that I had to pause and re-play the segment about five times.

A group of six college-age students in Texas have put some amazing videos of basketball shots on the Internet.

After seeing a couple on ESPN, I had to do some research of my own.

Just recently, Sept. 17 to be exact, the group – known as Dude Perfect — completed what they claimed is the world’s longest basketball shot. 

In case you haven’t seen it — and judging by the YouTube views, a lot of you have — it’s something to check out. 

Standing on the third deck of Kyle Field, the football stadium, at Texas A&M University, a shooter throws a basketball into the air, making an impossible bank shot. 

If you haven’t seen it, you should. 

Now, the question remains, is it real? Some claim it is, some claim it isn’t. 

But here’s what’s very real. According to their Web site, these six young men are out for more than just themselves. With all the attention they are receiving, the group is sponsoring children through Compassion International, a charity to help children in poverty. 

And judging by the views, people are taking notice.

According to the group’s facebook page, the group will sponsor one child for every 100,000 views their "Summer Camp Edition" video receives. So far, it has more than 600,000 views. That’s six children these young men are helping.

The longest shot in the world? Between the three different videos online, as of Wednesday night, has more than 3.8 million views. And that’s in less than a week.

It’s amazing what a few guys and a basketball can accomplish.