Sometimes rebounding is a more important statistic than wins and losses.

The Four Winds basketball team lost its opening game Thursday at the State Class B Tournament. But the team rebounded well.

From tragedy.

Eleven months ago, right after the Indians' first trip to state in 50 years, forward Michael Meade died in a car accident that is still surrounded by some mystery. He had just turned 17.

The team and the school had been riding a high after Four Winds' third-place finish last year. When Meade didn't show up for class one day in April, people got worried. When he didn't show up the next day, people got frightened.

It wasn't like him.

"My mom knew it was bad when she saw his basketball shoes sitting in the same place for two days," Meade's sister, Spring, said Thursday. "He went every day to play basketball. That was what he loved. I didn't want to think about it. I didn't want to believe what could be happening."

After an extensive search, Meade's vehicle was discovered in Devils Lake. It had veered off state highway 20. No one saw how it happened.

Some of Meade's teammates and coach Rick Smith were standing along the shoreline April 15 when the hearse rolled up.

"There was a big search crew," Smith said. "The whole community was out there. Someone found a muffler by the water, and some rocks where the car must have skidded."

Divers discovered the car, and then Meade's body.

Things at school and on the basketball team could have gone a couple of ways after that.

"It was very hard on the school, very hard for the community," Smith said. "Mike was such good friends with the five starters and the sixth man (on this year's team). They grew up together. It was hard for those guys to come back and deal with everything this year. But they did."

The team decided, at its first practice, to dedicate this season to Meade.

Four Winds retired Meade's No. 30 jersey. One is framed, another was given to his family. His practice jersey and a ball sit in his open locker.

When the team huddles at practice and in games, they head back to the court after a cheer of "1-2-3, Mike!"

It's still strange, Smith said, when they turn out of the huddle and Meade isn't there.

He's not the only one with that feeling.

"It's hard to look down the hallway and not see him," Spring Meade, 16, said. "At school, he was one of our seniors. But at home, it was just me and him. We were very close. Sometimes, I think I'm still in shock."

So, there are bigger things than basketball. Even this weekend, even in this town.

Still, sometimes how you rebound can determine your future.

At Four Winds, no matter how things turn out on the court, they can mark a "W" next to this year's team.

(Reach reporter Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tony.spilde@bismarcktribune.com.)