Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Storming the Court

Have you ever watched a college-sporting event where a team wins the big game and then all the fans run onto the playing field to celebrate? Doesn’t that look awesome? Haven’t you ever thought, "Man, I’d love to do that too!" I sure have!

Monday I had the chance to fulfill this dream of mine as my school’s basketball team reached the conference championship game and handily defeated our arch-rivals the George Mason Patriots! Winning this game meant that our team would be going to the NCAA Tournament, so naturally it was big deal for us! We as fans did our part to get the "W". We worked hard the entire game by yelling, cheering, and boo-ing every chance we got!

We jumped around the entire time only sitting down when half-time came. The stadium was electric with the enthusiasm of the crowd. At times you could hardly hear yourself think. Our team dominated the entire game. And as the the final minutes of the game ticked away our team was leading by 15+ points and Whitney and I decided to join the mass of students that were leaving their seats to go line up along the side of the court so as to run on as soon as the final buzzer sounded! I ran out to center court and jumped up and down with the players and rest of the fans! We chanted V…C…U! and hooped and hollered because for the moment WE WERE THE CHAMPS!
I was in the middle of the fray and was close enough to give high-fives to our two star players: Eric Maynor and Larry Sanders! We stayed on the court as the Championship Trophy was presented to our team and even watched as our players performed the mandatory college basketball ritual of climbing up a ladder to cut down the net on the basketball hoop. As Whitney and I left the stadium the city of Richmond was still booming with energy. We high-fived complete strangers on the street and the night sky filled up with car horns that blasted non-stop! We were champs! And no one could say otherwise!