Most recently, the town served as the backdrop for Paul Cuadros ' novel A Home on the Field, a true story about his experience coaching an Hispanic high school soccer team to a state championship in spite of adversity.

Among them are the Calgary Grey Cup Committee, whose volunteers have hosted pancake breakfasts on the day of the Canadian Football League championship game for over three decades, sometimes in spite of poor weather conditions for the annual November contest.

In spite of having the 1978 championship winning Lotus 79 and Mario Andretti and Carlos Reutemann as drivers, the Martini Lotus association did not achieve a single win and by the end of the year, Martini withdrew from F1 once more.

Lavolpe failed to continue Basile's chain of success, losing the 2006 Apertura championship in spite of a 4 points advantage with only two rounds to go.

In spite of an average record in the regular season, they made a serious run at the 1971 ABA championship.

Traditionally, the Shield winners only rarely made it to the league championship, in spite of usually being the heavy favorites going into the playoffs.

In spite of being the favourites to retain the championship title Kilkenny were later caught on the hop by Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final.

This was in spite of a protest by SV Beuel 06 which ultimately saw that club awarded the division championship, but too late to allow Beuel to play in the national playoff in Aachens stead.

In spite of the Curse, when Philadelphia sports teams have reached their league's championship round, Penn's statue has sometimes been decorated to support that team's success.

In spite of a run of non-qualifications, Borgudd managed to finish 6th in the British Grand Prix, scoring his first world championship point.

In spite of these objections to pro wrestling, Rickard and McMahon did promote boxing matches like the December 11, 1925, light-heavyweight championship match between Jack Delaney and Paul Berlenbach.

The Crues became one of the top junior clubs in the country, but in spite of winning an impressive collection of trophies, including the Intermediate League championship in 1925 / 26, all applications for entry to the senior Irish League were turned down.

In spite of this Loughnane still predicted that his side would win the provincial championship.

In 1999 Clare reached a sixth Munster final in seven years, however, in spite of aiming to retain their title a young Cork team caught Loughnane's side off guard and defeated the most dominant team in the provincial championship.

In spite of its name, the championship was never defended on a national basis but, rather, it was used only within the territorial region in which Georgia Championship Wrestling ran its operations.

The move proved fruitful as, in spite of a sleepless night and stomach pains during the competition, he won the world championship marathon with an eleven-second margin over runner-up Christopher Isengwe.

In spite of all the triumphs obtained with big teams, Chelato never could carry a small team to win a championship title.

In spite of this loss Doyle still ended the season as the championship ’ s top scorer.

Mulroney, in spite of publicly endorsing Clark, organized behind the scenes to defeat Clark at the party's leadership review.

In spite of this defeat, Theodore was able to take advantage of the death of David Megaskomnenos, the brother of Emperor Alexios I of Trebizond in 1212 and to extend his own control over Paphlagonia.

In spite of his own scholarly predisposition, Theodore II immediately marched against the Bulgarians and inflicted a crushing defeat on them.

Unlike Eanfrith and Osric, Oswiu held to the Christian faith in spite of his brother's defeat by the pagan Penda.

In spite of the defeat of his party, and of the fact that he was forced several times to take refuge in England, Cadoudal did not cease both to wage war and to conspire in favour of the Royalist pretender Louis, count of Provence.

In spite of the fear of many senators that Prodi's defeat would return Silvio Berlusconi to power, the Senate did not approve a motion backing Prodi's government foreign policy, two votes shy of the required majority of 160.

In spite of Spencer's efforts to secure the support of the Catholic hierarchy for the bill, they opposed it, and it went down to defeat in the commons in March 1873.

In spite of this defeat, Martin chose to remain as a backbench member of the House.

In spite of the spectacular defeat of the supposed main British thrust in the Battle of Carillon ( in which a banner was supposedly carried that inspired the modern flag of Quebec ), the French military position was poor.

) However, in spite of France's dislike of an Egypt dominated by the British, it was equally unwilling to allow the ambitious Governor to upset the balance of power, and thus, by waiting for the hope of a better chance at victory, Muhammad Ali had to suffer a harder defeat.

In spite of his defeat in the battle, Wright was awarded the Navy Cross, one of the highest American military decorations for bravery, for his actions during the engagement.

In spite of their defeat in the battle, the Americans had prevented Tanaka from landing the desperately needed food supplies on Guadalcanal, albeit at high cost.

His skillful and resolute leadership was displayed in three battles on three successive days, the Battle of Nachod, Skalitz and Schweinschädel, and opened the way through the mountains in spite of Bonin's defeat at Trautenau.

In spite of very impressive performances, Queiroz lost the League Title in a famous 6 – 3 defeat at home to rivals Benfica.

In spite of this he was able to defeat several of the factory Lancias and Ferraris.

In spite of this defeat Carey was later presented with his first All-Star award.

In spite of this defeat Carey ’ s prowess earned him a fourth consecutive All-Star award.

In Bucharest came a 1-1 draw, which qualified the Czech team for the UEFA Cup round of 32, from 3rd place in group H, in spite of a home 0-3 defeat against Sevilla.

alt = refer to caption In spite of early successes against invading Italian forces, by April 1941 the country was at risk of invasion from the Germans ; in a later poem Manning recalled the " horror and terror of defeat " of a people she had grown to love.

In spite of this defeat, the uprising of Yara was supported in various regions on Oriente and continued to spread throughout the eastern region of Cuba.

A check given with the sole intention of delaying an inevitable defeat by one move is referred to as a " spite check ", and may be considered somewhat unsporting.

In spite of this defeat, Standard managed to qualify for the UEFA Cup as they were 6 points ahead of Mouscron after the 32nd matchday.

However, in spite of his inferiority in troop numbers, Wavell was able to not only defend against the Italian attacks but by May 1941, he was able to defeat the Italians and occupy their east African colonies of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland.

His last appearance for the national team came in a 1 – 4 defeat at the hands of Brazil, and in spite of a strong Bundesliga campaign for 1.