Sports Heartbreak

As sports fans we have memories of great moments and games for our teams and for games we watch, be it our team or not.

Sports also breaks our hearts.

I am not a Wisconsin fan, but I do enjoy rooting for them, and last night's loss to Florida in the Sweet 16 was heartbreaking. The Badgers never gave up. Florida kept trying to pull away late and Wisconsin stayed in the game until they were able to tie it until Zak Showalter's three with 2.5 left to send the game to overtime.

Wisconsin took a 83-81 lead with four seconds left in overtime before Chris Chiozza's running three-pointer as time expired ended the Badgers season and sent the Gators to the Elite Eight.

With that said, I thought of heartbreaking losses I've seen. The odd thing, being a Packers fan, I can think of many heartbreaking losses for Wisconsin sports fans.

Yes, I'm a Duke basketball fan, but the Duke loss wasn't as crazy as last night, so it didn't have as much emotion.

Here are my top five off the top of my head, in no particular order. I'm sure I'm missing some and these are for teams I was rooting for. Comment your thoughts and let's get the conversation going. 

1) 2014 NFC Championship - Packers vs Seahawks
2) 2012 Notre Dame vs Florida State Football
3) 2017 Wisconsin vs Florida Elite Eight
4) 2004 ALCS Game Seven - Yankees vs Red Sox
5) 2008 NFC Championship - Packers vs Giants

Update: I was thinking of this based off last night but from a team I am a fan of, I would have to switch the Wisconsin game for Packers/Cardinals in 2015. 

March Madness

The 2017 NCAA Tournament, also called "March Madness" begins today.

As we often do, I'm sure we will see some upsets, especially today and tomorrow.

Have multiple teams I am rooting for, for a number of different reasons. Overall, I hope we get competitive, exciting games. The teams I am rooting for are Duke, Wisconsin, Vermont, and Rhode Island. Unfortunately. those four teams are in the East and Midwest regions, respectively, so they all can't make the final four.  

I filled out two different brackets. After filling out the first one, I wasn't happy to see how much "chalk" I had. And I filled them out for different groups.

My first bracket: Lots of chalk

That was the first one, which I wasn't happy to see that I had picked the four number one seeds to be in my "Final Four."

Bracket number two

I was much happier with bracket number two. In this bracket, I picked a few upsets with my heart, rather than my brain.

I will be ecstatic if Duke makes the championship, as I don't think they really had a great year. However, as a fan of the Blue Devils (yes, I'm a front-runner), seeing North Carolina win would hurt, especially if it is against Duke.

Today is one of the best sports days of the year, along with Major League Baseball Opening Day and the Super Bowl, in my opinion. March Madness also means that spring and baseball is close which makes me happy.

Excited to watch the games. Lets have some fun! 

Thank You....Ludlowe Basketball

In December, I wrote about my experiences about being a student manager for Ludlowe basketball and baseball.

The 2016-2017 Ludlowe basketball season came to an end last night. 

Since graduating high school in 2013, I have still been around the teams....a lot.  It's been a blast.

Due the the fact that I'm graduating college in May, I'm going to need to get a job. That being said, I realize that last night is probably the last time I will be around the basketball program on a close to everyday basis.

Who knows, depending on a job I get, if I will still go to some games, or even if I might be covering the teams.

With that being said, many people to thank.

 First off, Josh Marko, who was the basketball coach and I managed freshman baseball for him. I never managed basketball for him as he resigned, but I never would have thought of managing basketball if it wasn't for Coach Marko asking me about it.

Brian Silvestro, who was the varsity head coach for the three years I was the manager. He was not only a coach, who I enjoyed helping out and doing whatever was needed. He became a friend and someone who would (and still does) push me with school work and other life things.

John Dailey, thank you for allowing me to continue to be around the program after I graduated when you took over as varsity coach.

To all the other coaches, sub-varsity and volunteer assistants...Thank you.

Alex Borusso, Kevin Mason, Kieran Kilbride, Colin Sullivan and Jack Began. All of these people (sorry if I missed anyone) were varsity managers at one point or another in the last four years. Thank you for allowing me to hang and help you guys out. Sorry if I did too much. You guys were fantastic and I can't think of better successors.

To all the players, from guys like Kevin Bentivegna and Erik Krumins, who were seniors my first year, through this years team, thank you for allowing me to be a part of the team

This is a program that I am so thankful for being a part of. I'll always have the managers pride and I'll always follow this program.

Baseball season ahead. Falcon Pride forever!