Sunday, March 05, 2006

March Madness, kicking it small school

I have connections with three schools involved in the NCAA Division III championship series. DePauw's women's team crushed Maryville last night, leading by as much as 30 points at one point. I went with Mary, our kids, and one of my colleague's kids. I enjoyed watching the students in the stands as much as the basketball players. The small size of our school allows us to sit right in front of the action, but we still have an enthusiastic pep band (I didn't play cornetto after all, as I couldn't leave my wife to tend to five kids by herself), crazy students who dress up, and obnoxious cheers to give the whole spirit of March Madness. There were also plenty of faculty and staff at the game, a great presence that isn't as noticeable in larger schools.

At the game I wore a Lawrence University sweatshirt, in honor of the men's team that was playing St. Thomas University at the same time. My David-sized Vikings (suddenly I envision the players like this) slew the 10x-as-big Tommies (almost as bad a name as Wabash College's Little Giants). It was a much closer game, thanks to a 4 minute scoring drought Lawrence suffered close to the end.

And I have to give a shout-out to the Rochester Yellowjackets. Since I was both a graduate student and located at the isolated, downtown Eastman campus, I don't have a strong connection to their sports tradition. But I must acknowledge them, even if I will be rooting for the Tigers instead. Go Old Gold!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don't you just love that small college atmosphere? The same thing happened for me during my college days. Sure, we were a D1 school...but in my 4 years at Siena, the Saints men and women made the NCAAs 3 times. That was awesome, and our small school pride raged on throughout our conference tournaments and the NCAA games. It's all about being able to be noticed...FINALLY!