Here we go Tarheels!

Carolina and Duke faced off this week in one of the greatest sports rivalries of all time. I watched and cheered at home. I am and have always been a Tarheel basketball fan. All of the Arkansas are.

I grew up in a basketball family. My mother was a scoring machine averaging almost 30 points per game in high school. Any one who followed high school sports in Western North Carolina from the late 1970s to the early 1990s probably has an Arkansas story to tell. There were 8 of us and we all played high school basketball.

Regina and her teammates followed soon after Title IX and had the support of the community. I remember standing room only at her games. I am 5 years younger that Martin and by the time he played I was hooked on the sport. I sat on the bleachers beside the cheerleaders and cheered my heart out at ever game. Kimmy, Angie and I played on the same Varsity Girls team for 2 years competing for playing time but loving every minute of it. My younger brother Steve was poetry in motion. A play maker like none other.

One of my first memories is a newspaper reporter and photographer taking photos of my teenage brothers (and basketball stars) Mike and Phil in our living room. I must have been 4 year old. We were living in Juneau, Alaska and moving back to Cherokee, NC. The article ran in the Asheville Citizen Times about 2 phenomenal athletes moving back to Western North Carolina where they were expected to take the high school sports scene by storm. By all accounts they did just that. I can only assume the Juneau article was lamenting the loss.

Some of the greatest moments of my life have been great passes, cuts, shots or steals during a ball game. Player, spectator or fan I love the game. I guess I played 4-5 hours a day for about 20 years of my life. But a few years ago shortly after the birth of my daughter I simply lost interest. Didn't want to play, watch it on TV, or go to the local games. The Tarheels even had a National Championship run during that time.

But this week my mother and then my mother-in-law called to remind me the game was on so I watched, cheered and fell in love with the sport again. Carolina looked good! They did not win the game and Duke fans will tell you it was only close because the Blue Devils had a slow start. But watching that game reminded me what I love so much about basketball.

It is a metaphor for life. At least the life I want to live. It is blood and sweat and tears. It is camaraderie and personal growth. Give your best and expect the best from those around you. Give all you've got to give and then give a little more. Pray. Hustle. Cheer. Play and live and love so that as you close your eyes at night you can be a fan of you. Play and live and love so that you can know in the farthest reaches of your mind and the deepest corners of your heart you could not have done any better.

Here we go Tarheels! Here we go!