After the cows were milked, the calves fed and the barn buttoned up for the night, we made our trek 30 minutes east to watch our son’s district basketball game.

As we sat in a half-empty gym and watched our team easily beat a much smaller school, three hours to the west there was a college fieldhouse packed full of not only basketball fans, but with a community rallying around a team – and a family who, one game earlier, watched their son score the game-winning goal only to fall on the hardwood and die.

The Fennville High School boy’s basketball team became men that night as they put on their uniforms, slipped a Wes Leonard memorial warm-up jersey over their heads and solemnly entered a gym full of adoring fans to play the first game of their basketball playoffs.

Still in a mournful state, these teenage boys had to put their “game on.” They had to play for the win. They had to push the memory of watching their teammate collapse at their last game and think about an offense, a defense, making shots, making good passes and then have enough stamina to get through what may have been the toughest game of their lives.

While MSU men’s basketball coach Tom Izzo may have given them a pep talk earlier in the day, his words of condolences pale in comparison to the support they must have given each other and the community support they heard from the bleachers.

While sitting on the bench getting a break from the game, the players were encouraged by their coach’s loving arms around them. He had the insurmountable job of giving each one of his boys a courage transplant minute after minute after minute, and the delicate balancing act of knowing the importance of winning a game, while continuing to remember the fragility of life and its value.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the scorers’ table was also a team of boys with Wes Leonard memorial jerseys on, who had to grow up overnight to play this perfect team minus one of their key players. Would this Lawrence High School team take advantage of the emotions? Would they play harder thinking they might catch this team in a mournful lull?

Would they let Fennville win just to be nice? Or would they also keep their emotions in check and play hard to win?

At the end of the night, after a moment of silence and 32 minutes of a game well-played, the Fennville High School men’s basketball team remained undefeated as the entire crowd stood up, wiped their tears and applauded every young man in a basketball uniform on that court.

The Fennville community will continue to follow their team until they win it all or lose the next game. But no matter how far they go into the playoffs, these fans will be there to remember Wes Leonard, to prop up their team.

In return, the men dressed in black-and-orange will walk onto the hardwood with the burden of grief on their shoulders and carry not only a community and a memory of their fallen teammate, but the hope of brighter days ahead as the rest of the world watches these vulnerable teenage boys turn into our modern-day heroes.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.