Two weeks ago, "Stephen F Austin" wasn't in most people's vocabulary. Tonight, it's something that people all over the country will be saying (or trying to say, because for some reason-it's really hard to get Stephen F Austin right). To borrow a line from some rapper, we started from the bottom, now we're here.

Where is here, exactly? Maybe not the very top. We are no longer in the March Madness tournament, due to Notre Lame-I mean Notre Dame out scoring us in the last minute of what turned out to be one of the most stressful games I have ever witnessed. Devastated doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about our loss. Watching the ball go back and forth between our team and theirs, it felt like my heart was rising and falling with the ball every time it left the beautiful hands of one of our players. Every time it swooshed through that net, I was on top of the world. And every time it missed it-I was underneath it. I really thought we had the win in our back pocket at the last minute and a half, but Notre Dame scored, and we ran out of time. Honestly, Notre Dame just got lucky.

However, the pride that I feel being a lumberjack at the time when our basketball team rose up like cinderella and became one of the top teams in the nation is something I cannot mask. We are a cinderella team, and one loss does not negate all of the wins we've had this past season, and the triumphs we've had overcome to get to where we are. Our small school has gone from being something no one knows about or can pronounce to being a trending topic on twitter. The world is realizing you shouldn't underestimate our team. But our basketball team isn't the only thing you shouldn't underestimate from SFA.

Every student that comes through this University is another person capable of doing the exact same thing that our 2015-2016 basketball team has done. We are all people that probably don't get a lot of recognition in the world, but that doesn't mean that we are not capable of greatness. We may be the underdogs, but that means that we can do whatever it is we do with nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Being a lumberjack is something to be proud of every single day. Okay, so we lost a game by one point.

Or maybe some other devastating loss happened, but all the wins we've had as a team, as a school, and as people are still there and still relevant. So tonight, and every night, when I lay my head on my pillow, I know that I am one of the greatest things God has put on this planet- a lumberjack, and no one can ever take that away from me.You can go to any school to play basketball or get an education, you go to SFA to come home. Lumberjacks make great basketball players. Lumberjacks make great people. Thanks and Axe 'Em!