Monday, February 18, 2008

Aggie Women's Basketball


Yesterday we headed to College Station to watch the A&M Women's Basketball game. Charlotte has been looking forward to this for a week. She was so excited to see the girls play!

We were leaving straight from church to go to the game so the night before Michael and I decided we would all just dress for the game and wear those clothes to church. So I get dressed, get the kids dressed and then Michael comes out of the closet in...a dress shirt and slacks! That is not what my husband typically wears to a sporting event! And he is the one that always tells me that God doesn't care what I wear to church, God is just glad I'm there. But there he was in dressed for church while the rest of the family was dress for a sporting event. He did decide to bring a different shirt to change into, but never quite got why I was so annoyed by his clothing choice. Men!

We got to College Station early and walked over to the MSC in hopes of shopping at the Student Store. It ended up being closed. The kids enjoyed seeing a bit of campus. Rehm wanted to know where the chemistry building and oceanography building was. Then he wanted to know why the oceanography department was in the same building with the meteorology department. Then he wanted to know what "specials" we took in college. He meant PE electives. Then he started asking why you would ride your bike on campus, and did we ride bikes when we went to college. It went on and on and on.

When we arrived at Reed Arena we learned that it was Breast Cancer Awareness day and everyone was wearing pink BTHO Breast Cancer shirts. For those of you that don't know BTHO stands for "beat the hell outta," Don't worry I didn't have a clue what it stood for and had to ask my husband, who of course knows all. Oh, and when the game started the Aggies were also wearing pink.

We went down to the Kid Court for the kids to play a bit before the game started. All four thought that was pretty neat. They had balls everywhere, including a big blow up goal and balls in the center of the court and toddler sized goals. The kids loved dribbling and passing and running around on a real basketball court.

Finally it was time for the game. We bought some popcorn and found our seats. I was surprised to see that the band and the dance team were both in attendance. For some reason I didn't expect them for a Women's game. The bottom level of the stadium was about half full. I remarked to Michael that I remember when just a few years ago that was the crowd their Men's team would have had and then there was no band, dance team, jumbotron or ribbon boards. Aggie basketball has definitely come a long way. And for a girl who grew up on Tarheel basketball, it finally seems to be a "real" basketball program.

Speaking of the jumbotron and ribbon boards. I realized at one point that I looked up at the scoreboard to check the score and was confronted with sensory overload. Between the TVs, stats, advertising, and moving graphics it took me 45 seconds just to locate the score! And the combination is so overwhelming it completely competes with the game for your attention. I swear it took me several minutes before I found the players on the actual court again! What happened to just a basketball game with a simple scoreboard? Do I really need all that? And what does the ribbon board really add to my game experience? It just distracts me while trying to tell me who my insurance carrier should be and what fast food restaurant I should eat at.

The Aggies beat Texas Tech. All four kids enjoyed the game. Eliza Claire and Ruby enjoyed the band and clapping. Charlotte like the basketball players and the strippers, I mean dancers. Did I mention that the dance team annoys me.
Why does every single dance have to have at least half the steps look more like something you would expect to see in a strip club than at a wholesome family event? Do they understand that my worst nightmare is for one of my daughters to tell me they want to be on the dance team in college? Hmmm. I'm starting to sound like an old fuddy duddy. When did that happen?

Oh, and Rehm enjoyed the game. He has obviously learned a lot playing basketball because he actually followed the game and clapped and cheered at the appropriate times.

We really did have a fun day!
Jenn

2 comments:

Sherri said...

Where is Ruby's Aggie Pride? Eliza really looks like Charlotte in that first picture.
NC State women wore pink uniforms yesterday also. Their coach has breast cancer.
I also could not believe the strippers, I mean dancers at Zander's homecoming activities. The crowd was screaming - "Work it girl, show us what you got" and I just kept thinking, I am so glad that I have a boy!

Jenn said...

Ruby's shirt actually had Texas Aggies embroidered on the turtle neck. I couldn't find the jumper that went with it. I intended to buy her a t-shirt once we got there but the student store wasn't open.