It's not unusual for football players to postpone a surgical procedure until after their season is over, assuming they have that luxury.

They'll play in a little pain, if their doctor lets them, then get something fixed later. It's what players do.

Coaches, too.

Xavier football coach Duane Schulte will have hip replacement surgery in Des Moines on Monday. He probably wouldn't have mentioned it to a reporter, but it was revealed during an exchange of e-mails about something else on Sunday.

Imagine that. The Saints made a remarkable run through the Class 4A playoffs and reached the championship game Friday night, and the man in charge never said a word about facing hip replacement surgery until it was all over.

Ironically, we tried to talk to Schulte about injuries to his players this past Thursday, the day before the state finals. A superstitious guy, Schulte knocked on wood and said they don't talk about injuries to the players.

It was a beautiful November day, sunny with temperatures in the mid-50s, and he jokingly tried to talk about the weather instead of aches and pains. As it turns out, he had a medical situation of his own he apparently wanted to avoid discussing.

Best wishes to Coach Schulte. He deserved some rest and relaxation after a grueling 14-game campaign that began in early August, but instead he'll be recovering from surgery.

Schulte is an interesting guy. You'll rarely, if ever, hear him complain, even when something happens that may affect the outcome of a game.

The Saints may have caught a bad break in the playoffs last year in a 33-31 loss to Pleasant Valley in the opening round. It appeared they had recovered a fumble late in the contest, giving them a chance to drive for a game-winning field goal, but the officials ruled the fumble occurred after the PV runner had been stopped.

That may or may not have been true, but Schulte waved it off with reporters. "That was the call and we'll live with it," he said at the time.

And if you're a Xavier fan, you know what happened in the final seconds at the UNI-Dome Friday night against Ankeny. There was all sorts of confusion on the field after Ankeny was called for a late hit against Xavier quarterback Reggie Schulte on 3rd-and-25.

It was a 15-yard personal foul and the man who operated the down box on the sideline flipped the cards to first down, thinking the personal foul had resulted in an automatic first down at the Ankeny 40-yard line. In the NFL, yes. In high school, no.

It was not an automatic first down. In reality, it was 4th-and-10 at the Ankeny 40, not 1st-and-10. Just about everybody in the stadium thought it was a first down, including Duane Schulte, but it wasn't. It was fourth down.

It was a dead-ball foul, which means the penalty occurred after the play. So the play counted, they moved the ball 15 yards and it was fourth down. If the penalty had occurred during the play, rather than after the play, they would have replayed the down and it would have been third down.

Xavier trailed, 23-17.

Thing about that: There are 39 seconds left in the game and you think you have time for at least four more plays to win a state title. Then at some point (and it wasn't clear when) they tell you it's fourth down and you have only one play to hang onto the ball.

Think you might be a little upset? If so, Schulte refused to complain or point fingers.

He acknowledged being confused, but refused to complain or blame the loss on that unfortunate situation, even though it may have contributed to his team losing the state title.

Xavier was called for three straight 5-yard penalties after Ankeny was called for that personal foul, which moved the ball from the Ankeny 40-yard line to the Xavier 45-yard line with 39 seconds left in the game and contributed to the confusion.

At some point during the general bedlam, it went from 1st-and-10 at the Ankeny 40 to 4th-and-25 at the Xavier 45 without any plays being run or any time going off the clock.

Xavier quarterback Reggie Schulte knew it was fourth down and tried a Hail Mary pass to Corbin Woods, but the ball sailed out of bounds and Ankeny took over on downs and won the game.

Todd Tharp, an assistant director for the IHSAA, said after the game that the down-box had been incorrect when it said first down. He said the game officials corrected the mistake when it came to their attention and correctly made it fourth down.

It's hard to blame the guy who made the mistake. And it's hard to blame the official on that side of the field for not seeing the problem and not fixing it immediately. It was their job, but everyone makes mistakes, especially in the heat of battle.

But can you imagine if something like that happened during the Super Bowl or college championship game? Heads would roll and it would be a hot topic on sports-talk radio for days.

Instead, it happened in the high school championship game and the head coach of the losing team tried to brush it aside. He said a lot of factors contributed to the outcome, and that was just one of them.

It's a great lesson for the players on Schulte's team and for all the adults who were hoping for a different outcome. Sometimes things go wrong, and sometimes there's not a thing in the world you can do about it.

Complaining doesn't help, even when it's tempting.

Best wishes to Duane Schulte with his operation and recovery. The Saints started 11 juniors in the state finals. Chances are, they might get another chance next year.