If you did read my previous entry, I had quite a few things on my weekend’s ToDo list - most important being to prepare myself (laptop, camera, lenses, batteries,…) for Saturday’s game. It has been a while since I got out of bed before 6 am on a Saturday and it felt good getting up early. Journey, in our Fan Bus, started off on time from the SDC entrance and it was a nice day for travel - mostly bright, sunny interspaced with snow breezes… a pleasure to the eyes indeed. I used the travel time for few things - to edit couple of scripts, learn some more hidden features of my camera and talk to fellow passengers (about the need for and usage of my camera). The bus reached well in time for the game and Berry Events Center, from top, looked pretty intimidating - not because it’s big but mostly because of too many dark, unlit areas.

Berry Events Center @ Northern Michigan University, Marquette

Women’s game was first up and it was the first time I was sitting in the front row of any game - our team didn’t too well in the beginning and led by just a bucket at half time. Somebody (probably the coach) must have given them a whipping and result was pretty evident. Home team was demoralized half way through the second half and it was not a good sight to see their gaurd wait for the coach to call every single play - practically turning a first-half fast-break approach into a half-court one. In my opinion, they lost valuable time and literally gave up. Our team won by 10 (67-57), a relatively easier looking victory from a final-score point of view.

As is the case with most well-written great dramas (Porter’s Scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Kalidasa’s Abhijnaana Shaakunthalam or Bhasa’s Swapna-Vaasavadattam, so on), NMU Dance Team and the other team (I don’t know what to call it - they did a lot of gymnastic/acrobatic stuff during breaks) provided the much required (comic) relief and setting the stage up for more dramatic (sometimes heart-stopping and/or heart-breaking) events. Honestly, they sucked and sucked very bad, even in pro-NMU fan’s opinion, and they don’t have a pep-band either

Fan-filled Berry Events Center @ Northern Michigan University, Marquette

Men’s game started off an a defensive note - with both teams playing hard and points coming very slowly. If you just read the final score and feel that Tech lost by 5 points, trust me, you are missing a whole lot - actually everything, This was one of the instances when score fails to narrate the entire story. I ran out of batteries (I had three sets of them), TV6 camera person almost ran out of space (as well as battery) but the game never seemed to end. The game went for four overtimes, swung in favour of each team multiple times, and finally it took three extra people for NMU to beat Tech! 23-23, 46-46, 53-53, 63-63, 72-72, 76-81 were the scores at the end of each period - just for record purposes. One could probably say that we didn’t rotate our players well, but no one forsees a four-overtime game. Watching the games (and shouting, yelling, jumping out of my seat for almost every good point) sitting amidst non-MTU or pro-NMU supporters, was some new experience. If we had our pep band and dance team travelling along, we probably would have won the second game too Well, ifs and buts don’t win the game but even such a loss has lot of positive outcome - most commonly strengthening the mindset to overcome physical fatigue, atleast in my opinion. It wouldn’t be exaggeration to claim that there were more Tech fans for both the Marquette games, latter of which was one for the ages, marking a fitting finish to the Rivalry Week.

Ever saw people (mostly on the other side of world) wondering why is that US (and European countries) get bucket-loads of medals at Olympics while we get one bronze in 20+ years? Though I knew part of the reasons for it while in other side of earth, I guess I seem to know more now. After having been in US for almost four years - having played close to 50 softball games, watched another 50+ live games (and on TV, who is counting?), the answer to above questions can be summarized in the following questions, directed towards parents (mine, as well others - possibility of my parents reading this is zero though), and parents-to-be:

1. How many times have I (or we, just we from now on) encouraged my (or our or neighbor’s) kid(s) to play?
2. How many times have we prevented them from playing sports, for obviously and unexplicably stupid reasons?
3. How many times have we encouraged them to watch sports, live or on TV?
4. How many times have we prevented them from watching sports, live or on TV, again for obviously and unexplicably stupid reasons??
5. How many times have we been there watching and supporting games that they played?
6. How many times have we undermined and spoiled the joy, as a result of a sports victory, that our kids brought back from the field?
7. How many times have we failed to realize that a good performance on the field carries over to and influences off-the-field performances (say academics)?

Well, the above list of seemingly simple questions can just go on and I guess I have made the point - next time, when you see a bunch of kids playing in your neighborhood or in some field, take a moment to pause and support. It’s a cyclical relation - players feed off of fans’ support while fans feed off of players’ performance. If in case you don’t have time to appreciate, then definitely don’t make extra time to ridicule them. I cannot stress more on the effect that sports can have on life, in moulding and enhancing mental toughness, team work and making better human beings of ordinary individuals.

Of the games that I have been going to at Tech and watching on TV, it’s heartening to see nearly full house crowd every time (average capactiy for basketball/hockey games is few thousands while that for football games is quite close to 100 thousand) - irrespective of whether it’s at home or away, and tickets for these games are by no means cheap (average cost being $8+ excluding travel expenses while the average income is $12/hour). So, if you see US (or other European countries) topping the medal tally in next Olympics, you know what the reason is and more importantly, you know why the other side isn’t doing as expected.

Until next time, have fun