OnLoad not being called on postback?...

I have a composite control that's in a webform. The OnLoad method in this control is where i'm opening up the database connections to be used in the control. Everything works fine when the control is loaded, but when the control is posted back to, the database connections aren't being opened, almost as though OnLoad isn't being called on postback...

like this:

protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
{
     // open database connections here...
}

any ideas?
...