Sometimes it truly is hard to see the forest for the trees.

That’s particularly true in high school sports, where football remains king followed closely behind the ever-growing popularity of soccer.

But basketball has its own place here in Sampson County, and, in our book, it should rank right on up there with the sports everyone is usually talking about. This year, we’ve seen some remarkable basketball from the high school clubs, worthy of praise, deserving of our applause.

Chief among those clubs would be Clinton High’s Dark Horses, who are both 2A conference and sectional champs and heading into the regionals Wednesday night against Cedar Ridge.

Clinton’s club is already a winner in our book. In fact, the young men were winners long before they won their first game or captured a conference title.

Those young men became winners every time they showed good sportsmanship on the court, in the locker room, in practice and when their fellow students saw them day in and day out in the classroom, hallways and cafeteria at the school.

The fact that they are taking their prowess toward a bid for a state championship title only accentuates that which we already know — the Dark Horse basketball club is a solid group of young men with a competitive spirit and a heart of gold. They want to win, but we believe just as importantly, they want to be recognized as a good and respectable team of honorable young men.

Under the direction of coach Brad Spell, this young Dark Horse club, with only four seniors among them, has amassed a 24-6 record this year and mounting an all-out attack Wednesday night to advance to Saturday’s semi-finals, and finally, on to the state championship next week.

No one knows what the outcome of Wednesday’s game will be, though we all know what we hope will happen, but win or not, when the Dark Horses return to Clinton, they will still be seen as the winners we view them as today.

The team, with its energy, its belief in its ability to win, and its determination to make Dark Horse fans should achieve just that, exciting this town, invigorating the school and reminding us all that the game — be it football, basketball, soccer, baseball or some other sport — is far more than just about what happens in the arena. It’s about what’s in the heart, what it does for a community, what it does for students and what it does for a team.

We should be proud of the Dark Horse basketball team, show them our respect, offer them our support and, if we can, follow them down to Greenville Wednesday night and cheer them on as they play.

Our prayers are with the Dark Horse team and their fans as they travel; our hope is that they come away with the victory they so yearn to have, but we encourage them all to remember the victory is really in what we’ve already seen from our Dark Horses each and every time they’ve stepped onto court this year.