This year, we bid farewell to University of Oregon softball. Not entirely as Susanna may be involved maybe, sort of, as the student assistant coach. But her collegiate playing career has ended and so has our status as parents of an active player. We can still cheer the team on as fans and attend games, certainly here in Seattle. Maybe we will go down for a Pac 10 weekend in the spring. We've enjoyed being Pac 10 parents and I will miss my alternate life in Eugene. But that's how this deal works, an interlude as my father put it, the player gets 4 years only of NCAA eligibility. We are SO last year.
In 2007, we traveled to Hawaii and Arizona for pre-season tournaments. We made the annual trip to the Bay Area to visit Cal and Stanford. Post-season, I vowed to attend the NCAA Regionals, should the Ducks qualify. They did, and as expected, their destination (Columbia, South Carolina) was not at all Regional. We made all the Pac 10 weekends and organized the tailgates out front of Howe Field. I do really like UO and the town of Eugene, I threaten to move there, but it's all just talk.
The phrase "Go Ducks" has special meaning in Eugene, similar to "Aloha". It means 'hello' or 'goodbye' or 'best wishes' or 'good to see you'. You can start and end any conversation or correspondence with 'Go Ducks', always acceptable etiquette. If you wear the green and yellow "O" insignia ANYWHERE in the country (probably the world), others will murmur "Go Ducks" as they pass. Very amusing.
This also signals the end of most of our association with the jock community. Fun, if somewhat unlikely group, radiating energy and movement.
I'm going to ATTEMPT to post a video here. From the Oregon/Cal game from May. Six seconds long. Susanna beats out a bunt.
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2 comments:
Hi I just wanted to connect with you on the softball stuff! I'm a former competitive softball player myself - spent many many summers out there traveling the globe for the love of the game. I was looking at your softball posts and got excited. I continue to follow college softball and summer ball just because softball is in my blood and is there to stay :). I noticed a familiar face in Rayburn Hesse - I'm a religious spy reader. And of course the many names you mentioned from college softball. I've attended the college world series twice and have taken many awesome photos. I am working on 'digitizing' them so I can post them on my blog. (Now I just have basketball but I will hopefully be posting my softball ones soon - so if you're interested check them out). heathyterp.blogspot.com
Nice to see another softball-lover out there! Congrats to your daughter - quite an opportunity to play in the PAC 10 like that. Very exciting.
I am the biggest fan of "Suzy" playing ball and that video is the first action shot I have seen!
I can finally say I have seen her play!
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