My whole life I’ve either grown up playing, watching, listening to, hearing about or following sports. So naturally, this whole no sports thing has been a little unsettling. This time of year is supposed to be filled with Hockey East Championships and Stanley Cups, going to baseball games on sunny days, March Madness and Final Fours, soccer games and NFL drafts - ones that don’t take place from the couches in the homes of the recruits.
To fill the void that everybody is feeling (even if you claim you don’t like sports I know you miss it too) I have put together a list of my favorite sports moments, both experienced and witnessed.
3..2..1…
*Puck dropped*
*Whistle blown*
*Pitch thrown*
*Whatever. The game has begun.*
Let’s start with my favorite moments from when I was in high school.
It was my sophomore year of high school and my club soccer team was competing in the State Cup. It was the semi-finals game, and we were playing on this beautiful field and there was this great sunset. Whenever I drive by it I still get the feels. After a long game, we went into overtime. And after a long double overtime we went into penalties - the worst way to end a soccer game in my opinion. I had been chosen to take one of the kicks. Don’t ask. I’m still confused. I think I was third or fourth in the lineup and I remember walking up, super nervous. I tried not to look at the goalie. I took a deep breath and took the shot. It was low and to the left. My dad had taken a video of my shot and it ended with the phone by his side, showing a blurry image of the ground, and him exclaiming “yes!” We ended up winning and moving on the finals. The pictures I have from that game are my favorite I have from any game I ever played in.
So after we one the semis, we moved onto the State Cup finals. We lost 7-0! Or maybe it was 9-0. Lost track. Go us! It was supposed to be my last game playing for the team - I was leaving club soccer to focus on school. Normally, the team who wins gets to go to Nationals. Well, that team already had an invite so we got to go too. It was great! We lost every single game. Clearly should’ve never been there. But, traveling to Colorado with my team, staying in the hotel, going to team dinners and the whole experience was one I will never, ever forget.
This one goes out to the boys of the 2017-2018 Greeley basketball team. Not only were they great and really, really fun to watch, BUT they got to play at County Center. Driving my friends, all of us sporting our navy and orange, listening to pump-up playlist music on the way - so hype. There were so many people there! They lost. But, it was definitely a high school memory to always remember.
Lastly, making Varsity as a freshman and eventually being captain my senior year was just an incredible experience in itself and those four years on the team absolutely made high school what it was for me.
Next, my favorite college moments.
First would be this past November, the weekend after Thanksgiving. It was Red Hot Hockey at Madison Square Garden, Boston University was playing Cornell. Normally, when I go to MSG I see it filled with Rangers fans, Knicks fans, Taylor Swift fans. This time, the entire place was filled with red and white and families supporting their schools. It was the first time I felt that I was really a student at BU and it was so, so cool.
Another hockey moment is next. Every year, TD Garden hosts a hockey tournament called the Beanpot between Boston University, Boston College, Harvard and Northeastern. This year, it was BU vs. BC in round one. In case you didn’t know, BC sucks. We hate BC. You hate BC. Huge rival. We had to win, no ifs ands or buts. So, try and follow this: basically we were losing and then we tied it up to go into overtime. Then my friends and I left because it was getting late and it was a school night and I had an 8 am the next day and I’m lame. Then we stopped in a bar on the way home to catch the score and saw that BC scored. We had to go into double overtime. BUT, long story short is we won and BC still sucks.
Then in the finals, we were playing Northeastern. It was a ping pong game, constantly going back and forth with who was scoring. The one thing I remember was that there was 1 second left in the game. Northeastern was going to win. AND THEN WE SCORED. WE FRICKING SCORED WITH ONE SECOND LEFT. Literally one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I knocked my french fries over (thankfully not the chicken fingers) because we were all jumping up and down and hugging each other. We lost in the end but whatever. Not the point.
This one has to be my all-time favorite college sports moment, ever. It happened in the 1956-1957 basketball season. It was Princeton versus Dartmouth, a classic Ivy rival. There were over 3,000 fans in Dillon Gymnasium in New Jersey. It was a close game the entire time, both teams taking turns with the lead. The game went into overtime. With 2:45 left to go, it was tied 59-59. Dartmouth lost the ball out of bounds with 1 second left in the game, which means Princeton had one last shot to take the win. Little Artie Klein had recently come off the bench. The ball was passed to him, and with .01 seconds left in the game, he threw the ball over his shoulder with a 40-foot blind hook shot. It went in. Princeton won. Fans were pouring out the stands. Klein was lifted onto the shoulders of people he knew and people he didn’t. He was 19 years old and he was “Princeton’s man of the hour,” according to the broadcaster (which is where I got all this information). Little Artie Klein was my grandpa. Although I obviously wasn’t at the game when it happened, I’ve listened to the radio broadcast and interview enough times to know the play by play and to picture what it was like. I was there. I think my favorite part about this game is that it still lived on 50 years later when my Grandpa got sick. The Dartmouth player who had been guarding him during the game that day had heard and gave my Grandpa a call. If that’s not sportsmanship, I’m not sure what is.
And last but not least, let’s get into my favorite professional moments:
My family has been going to Red Bull Arena to see the USWNT and the USMNT play soccer whenever they come to town for years. Usually, it’s an international friendly before a World Cup or after during a victory tour. In 2013, we went to see the USWNT play South Korea in a friendly, but we ended up seeing more than just a game. We witnessed history in the making. Abby Wambach scored a hat trick that game that resulted in her passing Mia Hamm in holding the world record for the most international goals scored, men and women. She retired two years after that and if I remember correctly, that was the last time I saw her play. Insane. So lucky to have seen her play.
In 2018, my family found ourselves at Red Bull Arena once again to watch the USWNT play. It was freezing. But it was a special game, for at halftime, the U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team was being honored. They had just won the Olympics a few months before. I don’t really watch a lot of women’s hockey and I can’t even say that I saw more than a few minutes of them play during the Olympics, but having them all come out wearing their gold medals and sporting their gear was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I had the chills. I probably teared up knowing me. I was in awe. God Bless America.
This one was a fun one. Have you ever worn a Red Sox hat while cheering for the Yankees at Fenway Stadium? Not something I recommend. You get some real funny looks. This past fall I went to a Red Sox-Yankees game. My first ever baseball game was a Yankees game at the old stadium when I was 8. I sported a pink Derek Jeter shirt and made my dad get me a pink foam finger and a signed ball. What a brat. I live in New York but go to school in Boston. I figured why not root for both! If you ever have the chance to get to Fenway, do it. It’s so historic and cool and not for nothing, but the sausage and peppers are out of this world.
So there you have it. Some of my favorite sports moments, experienced and witnessed. What are yours?
Lets go Yankees! Or is it Red Sox…
After we won the game in PKs.
BC sucks.
We also don’t like Northeastern.
Nationals! At least we got a nice picture out of it.