GO LEHIGH!
All three bambinos got to stay up late tonight to watch Lehigh vs. Duke in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Talk about March madness. Holy Moly. Not sure that they fully appreciate the historic, epic proportions of the awesome game they saw played, but Kyle and Owen get it enough to know it was a BIG WIN. They fell asleep smiling. (Literally.)
K & O have been following Lehigh basketball their whole lives (they first fell in love with it via Zahir, who is still to this day their #1 basketball idol of all time). Meera mainly colored while her brothers jumped up and down like little maniacs, pounding their fists in the air, and screaming their lungs out at the television. We’ve gone to a whole bunch of the Lehigh games this season (where K & O are some of the loudest fans in the arena), K & O went to Lehigh’s basketball camp this past summer (where they got to know many of the players and coaches pretty well), and I have one of Lehigh’s biggest star players in a course that I’m teaching this semester (where I get to see a whole other side of things, far off of the court). All of this has led to the fact that over the past few months we’ve developed a real relationship with a couple of the key hot-shot players. It is pretty wild to then be sitting in our family room on a Friday night watching our guys play on CBS during primetime.
At the end of the game, when it was clear that Lehigh was going to win, I had chills and got tears in my eyes. I know some of these guys in a way that few do (as a professor, teaching the sorts of subjects I do, I often see a vulnerable part of students that is rarely seen elsewhere). I watched as my boys (K & O) overflowed with true joy as they watched my boys (#11 & #3). I thought of Zahir, and I thought of other awesome guys from the past ten years who played basketball at Lehigh while also taking my courses. My boys. Tall, strong, quick-as-a-flash, basketball star black athletes who are also smart-as-a-whip, intellectually curious, deeply driven, successful black students/people.
There is so much to this for me. And somehow, as I watch my boys watch it, I can see how it all fits together. Sometimes people really do come from behind, suspend all disbelief, and do mind-bogglingly amazing things. Not without the help of others, no. But sometimes it really does happen — there are big upsets and epic wins and most everyone is proven wrong. I’m talking here, of course, about my boys and about my boys.
Wow!! Can only imagine the energy in your family room!! For your boys to see their role models on the TV – and having shared experiences with these men in real contexts is so profound (likewise for you too). May all your boys continue to reach for the stars and be received in the way they should be!
– Kate
From MorFar !,, well I guess they wouldn’t play the game if it was an absolutely sure thing. But Lehigh vs. Duke. It doesn’t get more sure than that since Samson beat Goliath. Congratulations Lehigh on one of the biggest underdog wins of all time!
Love, MorFar
I was thinking of your family heather and so excited for you! I have followed your blog for a long time and even though our hometown of Missouri didn’t win, I was still smiling for lehigh! I have four young boys, and we scream our heads off too! Good times.
I am not a basketball person, but I knew how major that win was. My first thought was of your family and how excited you would all be!
I don’t even know you but you were the first person I thought of when I was watching the upset last night. We live within site of the Butler University Hinkle Fieldhouse and my children have grown up, like your boys, with basketball players in their lives. I remember Butler’s first trip to the Sweet 16 – my daughter was 12 and had made signs for the house down the street, before every game, where a few of the players lived. She is now a junior in college, at a Horizon League rival school, playing a sport. She was quite torn on who to cheer for this year, especially after sharing the training room with the basketball team.
It is so exciting when an underdog team has a huge win…can you imagine my neighborhood the last two years?
Go Lehigh!
I would think this might cinch their favorite sport, at least for Owen.
Wow, that was a close game! Big congrats from a diehard Duke family
(hubby’s alma mater)