Thank You, Cape Girardeau!

On behalf of our 2014 Tiger football team and of our greater learning community at Cape Central High School, I want to thank the greater community of Cape Girardeau for the immeasurable support we were offered during the historic success of our 2014 Tiger football team as it played in our first Missouri State Championship Game at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.

I had the true blessing of being on the field and being able to see our entire crowd of Tiger fans, and that sea of orange was a mesmerizing sight to behold.

It was very much like a homecoming game away from home, as I saw alumni, families and friends, some of whom I had not seen since my early years at Cape Central. In our crowd, I saw a baby less than 1 year old wearing an orange and black cap made for the day by her grandmother as well as an alumnus who had played Tiger football 70 years ago. No, we are not all football fans; however, a historic event such as this one is far more about community than it is about a game or even about a win or a loss.

I wish to commend heartily and thank sincerely our players and their families and our coaching staff and their families for all they invested and for all they sacrificed for the greater good of Cape Central. I also commend our Tiger cheerleaders and our cheer coaching staff who supported our players and represented our school with dignity from the first game through the last.

I wish to thank our Tiger Football Moms' Club for their faithful support from the preseason picnic to the postseason awards banquet.

Certainly, I thank our All-School Booster Club for the unfailing support they offered our team and for the extra games they worked in our stadium concession stand as we fought our way to the Dome.

I thank our Cape Girardeau sports media, many of whom went the second and third miles in covering our historic journey from beginning to end.

I thank Cape Girardeau Mayor Harry Rediger and the Cape Girardeau City Council for the celebratory proclamation recognizing our team, coaches and school.

Finally, I want to thank those anonymous patrons who all but shocked and humbled us by giving us unsolicited monetary donations to enable our kids to be dressed, fed and transported in a fashion that dignified the level of success they had earned.

No, we did not win the final game, and congratulations to our new friends from Webb City not only on this year's win but on all they have done in recent years to build a program that is a model for the entire state to emulate. We did, however, win the heart and soul of our greater community, and that is a victory of which we can be incredibly proud for years and years to come. Simply, thank you from the bottom of our Tiger heart!

Dr. Mike Cowan, Ph.D., is the principal at Cape Girardeau Central High School.