In the final, dizzy moments of the University of Hawai'i Warriors' 39-27 victory against Boise State that earned them the Western Athletic Conference championship, you could feel the euphoria of the entire state, as thousands spilled onto the field following one of the greatest athletic achievements in school history.

So many jubilant fans swarmed the team and its coaches that there was no possibility for speeches or official trophy presentations. Security quickly gave up trying to corral the masses, a smart move considering the night was all about those in the stands trying to connect with their heroes.

It's hard not to wish this team the best of success, with its relatively meager athletic budget, antiquated home stadium and homegrown athletes. Everyone at The Advertiser realizes what the Warriors mean to most everyone who lives here.

Our sports department realizes it most, so forgive us for having gone overboard in the past few weeks. The day before the Boise State game, they produced a special eight-page preview section and the day after the big victory, another eight-page special section on deadline. Sports Editor Curtis Murayama doesn't shy away from the extra work. In fact, he makes suggestions that we do more and push our coverage harder.

"You can't overcover a story of this magnitude," he said. "I try to put as many people as I can on this judging from the reaction I get from people on the streets, such as family, friends, parents on youth teams, etc. In my experience, the more you give readers, the more they want."

Sports columnist Ferd Lewis, whom we often call on to write Page One columns that sum up great local sports events, said this story, much like the 2005 World Championship West O'ahu Little Leaguers of 'Ewa Beach, has to be covered in depth. "When a story like this — or the Little Leaguers of a couple years ago — captures the imagination of a whole state, it is hard to overdo," Lewis said. "I don't think we have reached the saturation point yet. In fact, more and more stories seem to come spinning out of it. We're just trying to keep up."

We have to cover every angle of this compelling story, not just in sports, but in other sections, as we did all this week with some Page One presence leading up to last night's big game. Selfishly, we know that the success of the teams sells papers and draws online hits. For example, 16 out of our Top 20 online stories between Nov. 18 and 26 were about UH football.

That week we had almost 140,000 page views for UH football stories, 166,000 for Stephen Tsai's Warrior Beat blog (including almost 1,200 comments the day of and after the Boise State game), 140,000 page views for football photo galleries and 26,000 video streams. In addition, we sold 8,500 extra newspapers the day after the game.

The work is not easy. Tsai, for example, worked 12 hours on Thanksgiving Day to write his stories, missing dinner with his family. On game days at home, he and Lewis write their stories as the action progresses. By the time the game ends, they have about 10 minutes to file for our Neighbor Island edition and about 40 minutes for our O'ahu edition. Lewis wrote more than 50 columns or stories in November. Tsai wrote more than 40 stories and about 40 blog entries, which drew more than 15,000 comments for the month.

Tsai hopes for close games so he can write them quickly. Lewis likes fast games and great storylines (Tyler Graunke filling in for an injured Colt Brennan or Dan Kelly's last-second field goal) so he has the makings of a compelling tale.

I have worked in newsrooms where the sports reporters secretly hoped their teams would lose so they wouldn't have to write so many stories and the season would not be prolonged. Not so here. At the end of the Nevada and Boise State games, staffers were huddled around televisions, breaking into applause at the end. Then it was back to work.

Murayama, like all of us, has been hoping for the perfect Warrior season and the BCS bid. It may never happen again.

"Since they're this far, it would be a total bummer if UH doesn't advance to a BCS bowl," Murayama said. "This is once-in-a-lifetime. I want a victory regardless of all the work that we have to put in. In our office, we all cheer for UH."

This is being written before the results of yesterday's game, so by now, we'll either be on our way to a BCS game (with plenty more coverage to come) or we'll stay home for the Hawai'i Bowl.

Either way, it has been a remarkable season and our staff has risen to this special occasion.