North Stonington — This was Monday in 'No Sto,' maybe an hour or two before the polls would close, the howling wind of the late afternoon a potential harbinger. Would the wind, maybe winds of change, have something redemptive in mind for the kids of Wheeler High, who had endured so many votes of no?

This was Monday in No Sto, when the words of Ophelia hovered over the kids and the teachers, the kids and the teachers wearing the "We Are Wheeler" T-shirts all day: "We know what we are now," Ophelia said, "but not what we may become."

This was Monday in No Sto, before anyone knew the town — by three votes — would approve the $38.5 million bond package to preserve the schools in No Sto, thereby honoring the concepts of community and identity schools provide better than anyone, anything or anybody else.

This was Monday on the softball field, home to the school's flagship sport, about to win its third straight division title within the Eastern Connecticut Conference, despite Wheeler's perch as the league's smallest school. This was the place to be. The team that wins the most playing another game Monday and winning again, sustaining some good vibes for what would become the town's biggest victory of all.

Turns out Wheeler, often the afterthought, has the same passions pulsating through its people that they do everywhere else. They love their school. They love their town. And Monday, the town illustrated it loves them, too. By three votes.

"Most of the problem with these votes is that people look at it only financially," senior shortstop Raven Houck was saying. "I think they need to look at it as a whole. What does the school make you as a person? My experience couldn't have been any better. A small school, being so close to the teachers and coaches, is worth more than any money in the world."

And now you see why young Ms. Houck is headed to the University of Pennsylvania next fall. This is what your town produces, all ye who voted no or didn't vote at all. Houck, an all-stater who could hit third on any team in Connecticut. Houck, the Ivy Leaguer, whose eloquence should have many elders taking notes.

Quoth the Raven: What does the school make you as a person?

Can you really out a pricetag on that?

Imagine if in a few years, the next Raven Houck, a North Stonington kid, graduated from some other high school, the victim of No Sto kids getting absorbed into some other place. The next Raven: nevermore. Except that by three votes, No Sto keeps its kids, its schools and the concurrent current that runs all the way to the Ivies.

"This is my 11th year here," Wheeler softball coach Joe Cawley said. "It's a fantastic place. It was really something to see (Monday) with all the teachers wearing their 'We Are Wheeler' shirts on with a hashtag probably thrown in there. It's very much is family. An identity of the town. Every day I feel blessed to be able to go to work with people I like. And they pay me money to work with kids and read books."

Cawley and his kids occupy an important part of the ECC's smallest school. They win. They give Wheeler its swing at some headlines. Cawley's answer to the program's success was naming many of the players he's had in his six years coaching — Summer Cipriani, Jenn Paride, Sam Muller and Houck among them — but clearly, he's done something right as its coach.

"Being a small school can give us a little bit of an advantage because of how close-knit we are," he said. "We've been fortunate to have talented girls who are willing to do what they are asked. They don't make excuses. What I've tried to establish is that when we take the field, we expect to win. It is contagious at any level. Just like if you lose enough, it's hard not to fall into that rut, too."

The kids of No Sto learned some lessons this week. They learned that every vote truly counts. Because if four of the wrong people stayed home, the kids of No Sto would be headed elsewhere to be educated. They'd be wearing the uniform and the colors of another school. And now thanks to 908 people, Cawley gets to keep coaching, the next Raven gets to wear maroon and "We Are Wheeler" echoes triumphantly into the future. Hashtag: awesome.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.