I've mentioned University of Maryland basketball success the last couple of posts. I'm a homie. I went to college there. When the Univ teams are good I watch. Watching sports in general is not something I do.
I'd rather play than watch. I was never good enough at any college-level sport.
But I was good enough in high school (oh so many decades ago). 😁
So I understand competing. I was on the golf team. I was the worst golfer on the team (6 of 6), but we went undefeated for 2 years and I helped sometimes. We won one match because I sank a 30 foot putt on the last hole. No one was more surprised than I was! The thrill of success is lasting.
My junior year, we had a male foreign exchange student from Brazil. We didn't play soccer in my county back then. But to welcome him and give him something familiar, the school formed a soccer team (and neighboring schools did the same).
It was a hilarious start. The entire Junior Varsity football team joined as well as some of us who weren't. Soccer is a strange game. You don't wear much padding even though there can be a lot of contact. And you just keep playing constantly. No football huddles or time-outs.
The Junior Varsity guys quit after 2 weeks. They were all beaten up and exhausted. Big guys don't really play soccer well. It's all agility and never-stopping. But I was a small wiry 135 lb kid who had run with the cross-country team (not good enough to be on the team, but I ran with them).
I made the soccer team as a starter in the backfield. I could run around all day. Brian ( the Brazilian student) was amazingly skilled. But he couldn't carry the whole team. I think we went about 50-50 the 2 seasons I was there.
And that's where I learned that you don't always win. Yeah, it hurts to lose. But some team has to. You congratulate the winners and try harder the next game. And sometimes a team gets better and sometimes it doesn't. You lose sometimes. But you never give up.
So it is wonderful to see Univ of Maryland winning.
BTW, Cal Ripkin came from my high school a few years later...
