People always ask me how I became such a big sports fan, and it always feels as if they’re looking for a novel explanation why a woman is more than just a casual watcher of a couple teams. Truly, my journey to becoming the fan I am today really isn’t unlike anybody else’s.
I can remember sitting on the floor of my dad’s study on the weekends, old enough to know who I was supposed to cheer for, but not quite old enough to understand the rules. I learned to yell when he yelled and to cheer when he cheered. I watched often enough that I started to piece together what a first down meant, how generous a strike zone could be, and why it was so significant that Allen Iverson was such a good point guard. Like any other fan, I paid attention, and I learned, quickly, how the outcome of a game could change the outcome of your day.
For my 11th birthday, I asked for tickets to a Sixers game. I can still remember my anticipation during that 90-minute drive to South Philly with my dad, buying a hot dog, and finding our seats just before the jumbotron, embarrassingly tiny by today’s standards, showed Bill Cosby courtside (also embarrassing by today’s standards). We bought a plush bunny similar to this one. It’s nice to look back now and be glad that some things, like jumbotrons and plush toys, have changed for the better.
It wasn’t long before I became completely immersed in Philadelphia sports culture. I learned “Go Birds” means both hello and goodbye, but also thank you when someone holds open the door for you at Wawa. I learned I can wear a Phillies jersey to a Flyers game and nobody will bat an eye, and that the only thing that divides Philly fans is where to get the best cheesesteak.
In 2008, I came home from marching band practice just in time to watch Bradley Thomas Lidge throw the final strikeout to clinch the Phillies first World Series Championship since 1980. The first title in my lifetime as a sports fan. Days later, I learned you can say the “f-word” on television if your name is Chase Utley. Baseball became my favorite sport after that.
When it came time to look at colleges, I visited the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and quickly became convinced that’s where I would end up. I loved the campus, the city, the people I met on the tour. Then I learned UNCW doesn’t have a football team, and it was off to East Carolina University I went.
ECU has never really been known as a consistent powerhouse football school, so I’m often reminded how lucky I was to be there between 2012-2015. This was the height of the Pirates’ Ruffin McNeill era. In 2014, I watched Shane Carden throw a game-winning touchdown with 16 seconds left in a game against 17th-ranked Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. This came the week after the Pirates almost stunned in South Carolina, and a week before they notched a 70-41 victory against in-state rival UNC underneath the most brilliantly purple sky. ECU entered the top 25 that week, and I was on top of the world.
ECU’s game day culture rivals Philadelphia’s, and that’s likely the reason I felt so at home in Greenville. I wanted to be a part of it all, so I worked for the athletics department in both media relations and marketing. In college, those opportunities were plenty: football, volleyball, swimming & diving, softball, basketball, baseball – I covered them all, and loved every minute of it. In addition to my B.S. in Communications, I minored in sports studies. I planned for a future working in sports, and looked for any opportunity that would get me more experience. That’s how I ended up spending a summer working for the Wilmington Blue Rocks who, at the time, were a High-A Affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. I was fortunate enough to meet several of the players, and when the Royals won the World Series in 2015, I was awestruck that I knew some of the players on the team.
In December 2015, I graduated from ECU a semester early and lined up an internship working in the community relations department of the Philadelphia Flyers. The four months I spent working in the Wells Fargo Center were the peak of my sports career; I met some of my favorite players, traveled to schools across the region to teach them about hockey, and watched a Flyers playoff game from every corner of the ice. But it was also this experience that made me start to question if a career in sports was what I wanted. I loved every minute of it, but I also missed several minutes of game time, and wondered if I would ever start to resent the things I had loved for so long.
I sidelined myself from there, and though I have never regretted it, I have missed many parts of it – especially the opportunities to write. So, because of this, and thanks to the encouragement of a friend or two, I’ve decided to create this blog covering quite literally anything sports. Here you’ll be able to read my ramblings on collegiate and professional sports, stories about unique experiences I’ve had, and maybe the occasional stream of consciousness while watching a game. I know you won’t read them all, but I hope you’ll read some, and maybe come to understand why the love of the game is one of the great loves of my life.
Her Take 