Sometimes you just gotta put aside your focus on all things special needs and try to put some much-needed balance back into your life. That’s what I’m doing today.
I’m a wee bit Irish (aren’t most us?!?) so my focus today is all about being green. But I’m not talking about the green of Leprechaun lore and colorful beverages that make you a wee bit giddy.
I’m talking about MSU Spartan basketball!
I admit I’m not much of a sports fan, although I have suddenly adopted my husband’s life-long passion for Tiger baseball. You live together long enough, and those kind of strange things begin to happen.
But I do love my Michigan State Spartans (my alma mater). I’m a big fan of coach Tom Izzo, who with all his coaching fame seems to still have his head on straight, and his ego in check. Plus, he’s built a terrific program focused on nurturing, even demanding, the responsible growth of his players both on and off the court, something alone worthy of recognition. Each year, Izzo’s program is filled with talent, integrity and class, and good kids.
How often can we use those words when talking sports today?
NCAA tourney time, complete with the Green & White, comes along just when us hearty Michiganders are in desperate need of some real proof that winter weather is almost history. That sleepy groundhog ‘Pete’ just loves tormenting us with that all shadow no shadow stuff…… But if Tourney time is here, it must be Spring, right?
Today, my team, a #9 seed, is clearly the underdog in the NCAA round two game with the highly favored #1 seed, North Carolina. That’s a fact, we know it because they say it’s so in all that rabid media coverage by all those people supposedly in the know.
But the Spartans and their die-hard fans are used to being underdogs, especially during football season when we have to boldy face my twin sister’s alma mater, the Michigan Wolverines. That record? Not so great.
But we’re talking basketball now, folks. Being the underdog is a role that we Spartan fans even relish at times. It makes us who we are. ‘Cause just when the bulk of the positive kudos is going to the other team, the big Green machine likes to sneak up and spoil the party– and screw up the odds.
And that’s exactly what those of us who bleed Green/White are hoping will happen tonight!
Afterall, today is St. Patrick’s Day, the day when we celebrate and honor all things green, right? And there’s nary a Wolverine in sight….
Go Spartans!
May the Luck ‘O the Irish be with you tonight!
JudyWinter.com
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