Boise State's thrilling 43-42 overtime win over heavily favored Oklahoma provided some good teaching moments for youth sports athletes, their parents and coaches.

Despite entering the game undefeated, Boise State, from the Western Athletic Conference, was a big underdog to Oklahoma of the Big 12 Conference coming in. The thinking was that no team from a mid-major conference would be able to win a BCS bowl game against a traditional national power.

The Broncos, though, stormed out to a 28-10 lead, showing what inspiration and motivation can do, especially against a team that probably came in overconfident of their abilities. Oklahoma, though, came back to tie the game at 28-28, and scored with about a minute to play to take a 35-28 lead.

Boise State got the ball back with less than a minute to play, and soon faced a fourth-and-18 from the 50. Instead of quitting, the Broncos executed a stunning hook-and-ladder play, where the quarterback threw it to a receiver, who pitched the ball to a teammate, who completed the 50-yard scoring play to send the game into overtime.

After Oklahoma quickly scored a touchdown to take a 42-35 lead, Boise State had one more chance. It faced a fouth-and-goal from the 5 yard line, and had to score or would lose. The Broncos did score, and then decided to go for the two-point conversion rather than kicking the extra point, which would have sent the game into a second overtime. The Broncos converted this as well to win a game being ranked among college football's alltime best.

Despite all the pregame talk about how Oklahoma would prove that Boise State wasn't as good as its 12-0 record would indicate, the Broncos believed in themselves, and it showed. And while Oklahoma was overconfident early, it took the lead twice late in regulation and overtime and Boise State answered both times, and won it with a gutsy call by going for two after scoring in overtime.

You could say that David beat Goliath, but David had motivation, determination and the self-confidence it needed to win. These are good points for us all to keep in mind as our kids participate in sports whose outcomes are decided on the field.