They say winning isn’t everything, and especially with high-school sports, that’s true. The positive experiences of learning a skill, working as a team and performing under pressure can be had whether your team wins every game or lose every one.

But winning helps.

The Albert Lea High School football team found out what winning was like for the first time in their varsity football careers Friday night. And while you can go on and on about how winning isn’t everything, at a very basic level, winning is what sports is all about.

It was important for the 40-game losing streak of the football team to be stopped. The players have been carrying the burden of the streak for years. It’s not easy to have a good time when you start every game knowing that your team hasn’t won since you have been in high school. And it wasn’t going to get any easier to attract athletes to the football program with the continued specter of the streak looming.

The problem in the past was not that the players didn’t work hard enough. They have labored, but until Friday, they had little to show for their efforts. To finally get a victory demonstrates that hard work and dedication do pay off.

The players, coaches and parents who have stuck with the football team deserve credit. They have a bit of well-deserved confidence now. Let’s see if they can start a winning streak.