Phil Anastasia: A small, memorable gesture in S. Jersey football

In the emotional moments after his first coaching victory in nearly two years, Jarod Claybourn found a special place for the game ball.

He put it in the hands of the opposing coach.

"Classiest thing I've ever seen on a football field," Gateway coach Mike Karp said.

Claybourn's gesture might be the coolest thing that's happened this season in South Jersey football. It definitely was the best display of sportsmanship.

This was the situation on Friday night: Sterling was 0-5 and carrying a 17-game losing streak, and Gateway was 0-5 and carrying a 16-game losing streak.

This was a clash of Colonial Conference teams that have been struggling for a long time. This was both teams' best chance for that elusive victory.

It was a tense, competitive game. Gateway had a 7-6 lead at halftime, but Sterling rallied as sophomore Marcus Taylor made a couple of big plays, and the Silver Knights took a 20-13 lead.

With about two minutes left, Sterling was looking at a fourth and 1 from midfield.

"I decided we needed to go for it," Claybourn said. "But their kids made a better play than our kids."

Gateway got the football back with one last chance. The Gators completed a couple of passes and drove into the red zone, but the clock hit 0:00 before they could reach the end zone.

"They just ran out of time," Claybourn said. "They deserved to win that game as much as we did, if not more."

In the handshake line, Claybourn saw one of his players with the game ball. The Sterling coach grabbed it and handed it to Karp.

Three nights later, Karp still was overcome with emotion at that small gesture from one coach to another.

"I don't even know if I can put it into words," Karp said. "We're two struggling programs. Somebody had to lose, and we came up on the short end of the scoreboard.

"But for him to do that, it just shows that we gained some respect that night. That means so much to our kids."

We all have the same view of sportsmanship: It's the strong taking it easy on the weak.

But that's too narrow. That implies that only good teams can be good sports.

Claybourn doesn't have a good team - not yet, anyway, although the Silver Knights are moving in the right direction.

But they belong in the top 10 when it comes to sportsmanship and perspective. That's how impressive it was that Claybourn had the presence of mind to think of the opposing coach just moments after his first victory since Nov. 8, 2008.

"It was very emotional for me," Claybourn said. "I looked at him, and I knew exactly where he was. I know exactly what it's like to be right there and have an opportunity to win a game and have it taken away from you."

Claybourn said he didn't plan to give Karp the football. He was inspired when the saw the faces of the Gateway players, when he saw a familiar look in his counterpart's eyes.

"They had something like 17 players in uniform [actually, 19]," Claybourn said. "For them to play as hard as they did and come that close to winning, I just wanted to honor them in some way."

It was a small moment in the handshake line after a game between a 1-5 team and an 0-6 team.

But I'm betting we won't hear of anything better in 2010.