So we're officially and fully immersed into the reason why we're here - Wake Forest Sports! This weekend, we witnessed the women's volleyball tournament, women's soccer, and (for the first time for either of us) women's field hockey. And, I can't fail to mention that the football team also had their season opener on Thursday night at Baylor in Texas, bringing home a 41-13 win!
The round robin volleyball tournament was comprised of Wake, Norfolk State, Davidson (one of the Cinderella story teams from the NCAA tournament last year), and Winthrop - which is where a family friend of ours played and is currently an assistant coach! It was fun getting to see Tara, the daughter of Sandy and Randy Toepke, the Metamora Redbirds' athletic director, and hang out with her a little bit between games. (She's the one with the long blond ponytail.)
Another small world moment occurred when I walked into the volleyball game and saw that one of my coworkers from The Rush Fitness Complex is one of Wake's assistant coaches as well. (Yes, I have a job! Well, I actually have two of them...plus three weekly volunteer commitments, but I'll save all of that for another post). Aaron is one of the personal trainers there, but is slowly working his way back into the swing of things coming off of his own ACL knee injury. (He's the tall guy).
Sunday afternoon involved the women's soccer game, where technically, Chris and I were both just spectators...until a girl needed stitches. I almost always make it a rule to carry a book in my purse for instances just like this, but for some reason, I took it out last night. My mistake - I watched what felt like three hours of approaching Hurricane Gustav coverage on the TV in the training room - but it really was probably only 45 minutes. Those pocket-sized Barnes & Noble classics are really going to come in handy this year!
After the suturing was all complete, we then went out to "the pitch," the playing field where field hockey is played (just trying to use some newly learned lingo). This was also a weekend tournament featuring Wake, University of North Carolina, Michigan, and none other than I-O-W-A! On Saturday, Chris excitedly walked through the tailgating crowd of Hawkeyes and flashed them his Iowa T-shirt he was wearing under his Wake Forest polo. "Even though Wake provides the paycheck, Iowa is still closest to my heart..." and "You can take the Hawkeye out of Iowa; but you can't take the Iowa out of a Hawkeye." (Insert rolling of Dawn's eyes here....puhhhleease!) That did get us invited back to the post-game tailgating, but unfortunately we couldn't go because Chris had to cover the games - darn. A little Demon Deacon on his chest, but a big Hawkeye by his side (At least he got to use his banner - one of the many items I suggested were completely unnecessary to bring to NC).
Wake beat Iowa on Saturday coming back from a 0-2 deficit to win 3-2. And then, Iowa repeated the situation but from the other side when playing UNC on Sunday - and in a much more dramatic fashion. UNC is the defending national champion (with an undefeated record last year), and currently ranked #1 in the country. Chris and I didn't get out to the game until the 2nd half (because of the suturing incident) and Iowa was down 2-0. With 7 minutes to go, Iowa finally scored, and then they scored TWICE in the last three minutes. It was so exciting! Yeah, Hawks! And we didn't even have ANY IDEA what the rules were!
The refs (who wear hot pink shirts and black skirts) blow their whistles and make little hand signs that seem similar to soccer and/or football, but yet it's not quite the same...The girls (who also wear skirts, by the way, but no sort of protective gear) run around all hunched over - their backs have to get sore - and hit this white ball with their sticks. (I realized I've lost the opportunity to use some other lingo here because I'm pretty sure there is probably another name for the equipment besides "white ball" and "sticks"...but you get the drift). The ball appears to be similar to a whiffle ball, but is surprisingly much heavier than one. As evidenced by the girl who got hit in the jaw with it and had to go to the emergency room. My favorite part is when they all huddle inside the goal and then charge out when the ball comes into play. The one part I did pick up on is that you have to be inside the arc in order to score - so if you hit from midfield and it goes in the goal, it doesn't count. In basketball, you get MORE points for being outside the arc; in field hockey, you get zero. Hmmm... that just doesn't make sense to me.
The other thing that I at first didn't understand from this weekend was the caution tape across the bleachers at the volleyball tournament. I can now say with certainty it meant: CAUTION! Sitting on this surface for seven hours or more will certainly give you an aching bleacher-butt! Holy cow - I'm going to have suck up the pride and buy one of those little cushions to sit on or something if I'm going to survive the rest of this year! May I please take this moment to apologize to my parents and other family members who endured many, many hours of sitting on bleachers to watch me play sports - I now feel your pain!
So we're officially and fully immersed into the reason why we're here - Wake Forest Sports! This weekend, we witnessed the women's volleyball tournament, women's soccer, and (for the first time for either of us) women's field hockey. And, I can't fail to mention that the football team also had their season opener on Thursday night at Baylor in Texas, bringing home a 41-13 win!
The round robin volleyball tournament was comprised of Wake, Norfolk State, Davidson (one of the Cinderella story teams from the NCAA tournament last year), and Winthrop - which is where a family friend of ours played and is currently an assistant coach! It was fun getting to see Tara, the daughter of Sandy and Randy Toepke, the Metamora Redbirds' athletic director, and hang out with her a little bit between games. (She's the one with the long blond ponytail.)
Another small world moment occurred when I walked into the volleyball game and saw that one of my coworkers from The Rush Fitness Complex is one of Wake's assistant coaches as well. (Yes, I have a job! Well, I actually have two of them...plus three weekly volunteer commitments, but I'll save all of that for another post). Aaron is one of the personal trainers there, but is slowly working his way back into the swing of things coming off of his own ACL knee injury. (He's the tall guy).
Sunday afternoon involved the women's soccer game, where technically, Chris and I were both just spectators...until a girl needed stitches. I almost always make it a rule to carry a book in my purse for instances just like this, but for some reason, I took it out last night. My mistake - I watched what felt like three hours of approaching Hurricane Gustav coverage on the TV in the training room - but it really was probably only 45 minutes. Those pocket-sized Barnes & Noble classics are really going to come in handy this year!
After the suturing was all complete, we then went out to "the pitch," the playing field where field hockey is played (just trying to use some newly learned lingo). This was also a weekend tournament featuring Wake, University of North Carolina, Michigan, and none other than I-O-W-A! On Saturday, Chris excitedly walked through the tailgating crowd of Hawkeyes and flashed them his Iowa T-shirt he was wearing under his Wake Forest polo. "Even though Wake provides the paycheck, Iowa is still closest to my heart..." and "You can take the Hawkeye out of Iowa; but you can't take the Iowa out of a Hawkeye." (Insert rolling of Dawn's eyes here....puhhhleease!) That did get us invited back to the post-game tailgating, but unfortunately we couldn't go because Chris had to cover the games - darn. A little Demon Deacon on his chest, but a big Hawkeye by his side (At least he got to use his banner - one of the many items I suggested were completely unnecessary to bring to NC).
Wake beat Iowa on Saturday coming back from a 0-2 deficit to win 3-2. And then, Iowa repeated the situation but from the other side when playing UNC on Sunday - and in a much more dramatic fashion. UNC is the defending national champion (with an undefeated record last year), and currently ranked #1 in the country. Chris and I didn't get out to the game until the 2nd half (because of the suturing incident) and Iowa was down 2-0. With 7 minutes to go, Iowa finally scored, and then they scored TWICE in the last three minutes. It was so exciting! Yeah, Hawks! And we didn't even have ANY IDEA what the rules were!
The refs (who wear hot pink shirts and black skirts) blow their whistles and make little hand signs that seem similar to soccer and/or football, but yet it's not quite the same...The girls (who also wear skirts, by the way, but no sort of protective gear) run around all hunched over - their backs have to get sore - and hit this white ball with their sticks. (I realized I've lost the opportunity to use some other lingo here because I'm pretty sure there is probably another name for the equipment besides "white ball" and "sticks"...but you get the drift). The ball appears to be similar to a whiffle ball, but is surprisingly much heavier than one. As evidenced by the girl who got hit in the jaw with it and had to go to the emergency room. My favorite part is when they all huddle inside the goal and then charge out when the ball comes into play. The one part I did pick up on is that you have to be inside the arc in order to score - so if you hit from midfield and it goes in the goal, it doesn't count. In basketball, you get MORE points for being outside the arc; in field hockey, you get zero. Hmmm... that just doesn't make sense to me.
The other thing that I at first didn't understand from this weekend was the caution tape across the bleachers at the volleyball tournament. I can now say with certainty it meant: CAUTION! Sitting on this surface for seven hours or more will certainly give you an aching bleacher-butt! Holy cow - I'm going to have suck up the pride and buy one of those little cushions to sit on or something if I'm going to survive the rest of this year! May I please take this moment to apologize to my parents and other family members who endured many, many hours of sitting on bleachers to watch me play sports - I now feel your pain!
1 comment:
That's a lot of sports--even for the two of you! The Hawkeye shirt cracks me up. We're trying not to talk about Iowa around here--the Maine football team is feeling awfully embarrassed about their recent trip to the midwest.
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