Zachary, Katie, Tyler, and I with Coach Pat Summitt (Hubby was taking the picture!) If you were at our house last night, you would have have heard "Rocky Top" sang over and over, our fave UT cheers, and tons of ORANGE PRIDE! As I've told you before, we are huge Tennessee Lady Vols Basketball fans! We have gone to games every winter for the last 6 years, with the exception of this year due to chemo and such. :-( We absolutely LOVE going and being amidst all the other orange-clad fans and cheering our Lady Vols on to victory! Last night, Coach Pat Summitt recorded her 1,000th win...more than any other coach (male or female) in D1 history. That's quite an accomplishment, and definitely one we would have been there for had it not been for this whole breast cancer thing. UGH! We were in Nashville when she got her 900th win over Vanderbilt in Jan. '06; the atmosphere was truly electrifying!
We were so proud to see Coach Summitt get her big win last night. She is a wonderful teacher, motivator, friend, and mother-figure to her players and she is so appreciative of the Tennessee fans. We wished so bad that we could have been there last night, cheering like crazy in the arena with the other 17,000 people. I was so excited to watch but couldn't help but be sad that we weren't there. But Lord willing, the fact that we aren't there this year means that we will be there for many other games for years to come.
In December '04 we were in Knoxville for a couple of games the week before Christmas, and one morning we were eating breakfast at a little Ihop there in town. Then-freshman Lady Vol Candace Parker walked in and sat down at the table next to us. Now I don't know if anyone watches sports like we do, but I was totally star struck, she's kinda a big deal! *kinda embarrassed now* I got her autograph and we started talking; she played with the kids and we visited over breakfast. She proceeded to give us her player's tickets to the game that night and told us to come down to the tunnel after the game and she would take us back to the locker room. If you don't know, these girls and coach are treated like rock stars: security, body guards, the whole works. So after the game we spent the next hour or two in the locker room meeting other players and Coach Summitt. We took some pics and left there on a high that you wouldn't even believe. Candace and I kept in touch throughout her years at UT, and we would hook up at games and get to visit and go out to dinner and whatnot. She is now a star in the WNBA.
We were so proud to see Coach Summitt get her big win last night. She is a wonderful teacher, motivator, friend, and mother-figure to her players and she is so appreciative of the Tennessee fans. We wished so bad that we could have been there last night, cheering like crazy in the arena with the other 17,000 people. I was so excited to watch but couldn't help but be sad that we weren't there. But Lord willing, the fact that we aren't there this year means that we will be there for many other games for years to come.
2 comments:
Hooray!!! :-)
That was a great story - thank you for sharing it. Very cool that you stayed friends with Candace throughout her years at school. Nice experiences and examples for your kids too, I think. I am sure you will be at many, many more games!
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