Texting with a favorite cousin Nita in Texas yesterday about my post on the Gamecock women’s basketball National Championship – she shared a memory of my daddy’s coaching days in Richards, a memory that made me smile.
I remember your Dad in his shorts when he was coaching basketball in Richards, she texted me. Now that would have been a vision, I thought and laughed to myself. My daddy was a very short man with skinny legs in those days but I guess he wore shorts to practice with his team.
So few people left who remember him, I texted Nita.
He was an amazing man. Very strong and loving, she responded.
I wish I had had him longer, I said. He was my best friend. (He died from colon cancer at the age of 51 when I was 30 years old.)
You’re lucky to have had that valuable relationship, she texted. He would be so pleased to see you now in your happy place and all the things you do and experience. You’re the Energizer Bunny. You can knock her down, but she’ll pop up again. And keep going.
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My cousin Nita has known me since I was born nearly 78 years ago in Navasota, Texas. Because she lived in the much bigger city of Rosenberg, was a few years older, was beautiful, always kind to me and my family, was my mother’s first cousin – the stars aligned to make her a goddess to me when I was growing up. Thinking of her now always makes me smile; she lives in Austin today with her husband Joey who is a huge sports fan like Pretty and me. When the Texas Longhorns women’s basketball team was eliminated in post season play, Nita and Joey became Gamecock fans.
Many of my younger friends call me Sheila Slo because it takes me longer to get around when I’m with them. But my cousin Nita sees the Energizer Bunny side of me that she’s watched for nearly eight decades. I’ve had many knock downs in my life, gut checks happen at any age – it’s the “popping up” choices we make that may define us in the end.
Sunday, April 07, 2024 – write it down in the women’s basketball history books as the undefeated University of South Carolina Gamecock women defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes with a final score of 87-75 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Gamecock team finished the season with a perfect 38-0 record and will bring team as well as individual player trophies home to Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina, when they arrive today.
(Kirby Lee, USA Today Sports)
Coach Dawn Staley lifts the trophy for her third championship team…
(Ken Blaze, USA Today Sports)
…and cuts the net in basketball championship tradition
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Magical, monumental, memory making – all words I could use to describe the 2023-24 South Carolina women’s basketball winning season. I have held my breath and refused to write about our team until we reached the post season and finished what Raven Johnson called her Revenge Tour because of the Iowa loss she took personally at the Final Four in 2023, but now she and the rest of her Gamecock Nation can celebrate overcoming all obstacles in their way toward the perfect season this year.
Basketball has been a passion for me since I was six years old when my daddy coached the high school boys and girls teams in Richards, Texas, one of the smallest schools in the state. My grandparents took me to every home game, and my daddy let me ride the old yellow school bus to the “away” games with him and his teams. The one year he created a junior high team, he let me play with them when I was in the fifth grade. I still remember the only game we played against a much larger school that quickly disposed of us 52-19, but I scored 13 of the points which made my father very proud.
We moved to Brazoria, Texas, when I was in the eighth grade where I loved playing for Coach Lloyd Thomas and then adored Coach Lois Knipling in my three years on the varsity team at Columbia High School in West Columbia, Texas. Several teammates from those years remain important friends who share memories we never forget. Basketball has always been in my blood, but I followed teams on TV instead of going to the games until I married a woman whose family, particularly her mother, loved basketball as much as mine did. No family gathering skipped sports conversations, especially basketball.
Coach Dawn Staley came to the University of South Carolina sixteen years ago and generated a fan following long before the successful seasons she’s enjoyed in recent times. She rekindled the dormant interest of the Gamecock Nation, and I want to thank Pretty for making sure we became a part of the action at Colonial Life Arena. She signed us up for the Gamecock Club nine years ago, and we have never looked back.
It takes a village as a famous person once said, and I want to thank my personal “squad” for making sure this old woman who will be 78 in two weeks continues to be able to attend the games, cheer for the home team, and share fun times: Garner, JD, Brian, Joan, Susan, Chris, Pat, Brenda, Tony, Drew, Caroline, Ella, Molly, the women who sit at the end of Row 17 in Section 118 who make sure I don’t walk past my row, and the woman who sits behind me who makes sure I sit in the right seat on my row if Pretty is at concessions before the home games. Special thanks to my Road Warriors Brian, Garner, and Robert who take care of me on the away games when Pretty isn’t able to make the trip.
Out-of-towners who are part of my squad include Jennifer who is our point person for Gamecock basketball insider information, sisters-in-law Darlene and Dawne in the upstate, Texas sister Leora, Texas cousin GP, Seattle cousins Trevor, Morgin, Rory, Quinn, and Vaughn. They may not be present in person, but they love Gamecock women’s basketball. Locals Sheila Go, Meghan and Dick connect with Pretty and me throughout the season, too.
(Thanks to you all for the memories! I’m sure I’ve left someone out, but if it’s you, mea culpa. Remember I am old, as my granddaughter Ella reminds everyone when I falter.)
And of course every squad needs a Captain – my Captain is Pretty who handles all ticket purchases, travel arrangements to all games, and usually makes sure we eat Mexican food afterwards. If victories are super sweet and the Hot Donuts sign is lit bright red at the Krispy Kreme in West Columbia, Pretty drives through for a 3-pack special treat for us.
My life has been, and continues to be, good whether our team brings home trophies or not, but today it’s a Great Day to be a Gamecock.
Onward.
the future is bright with one of my favorite freshies
Charly’s loud barks startled Pretty and me late Friday night when she jumped to her feet from her bed next to me in the den, staring toward the darkness of our backyard. Spike joined in with her from his sofa in the living room.
What’s up with the dogs? I asked Pretty who shook her head as she scrolled Twitter from her chair for any tidbits about the first round of the Final Four women’s basketball games we watched that night. I glanced behind me from my comfortable recliner in the direction of Charly’s gaze but didn’t see any lights from our backyard motion detection devices, sighed, gave Charly a withering look for disturbing my focus on the second half of the UConn/Iowa game, raised the volume on the TV until Charly and Spike eventually stopped barking.
Some time later I noticed our elderly 100% deaf dog Carl wasn’t in his usual spot on the rug in front of the fireplace screen. Do you know where Carl is, I asked Pretty who looked up from her phone in the direction of the kitchen. Probably in the kitchen, she said. I got up and checked his alternate sleeping spot in the kitchen, but he wasn’t there. That’s odd, I thought.
He must be outside, but I’ll take a look, I said to Pretty who nodded. Charly seemed eager to go out with me.
As we walked around the swimming pool in the chilly air, the motion detection lights clicked on to reveal what looked like the shape of a very large rat swimming barely below the surface of the water at the deep end of the pool opposite where Charly and I were standing. She ran around to that side of the pool as I followed her.
The moving object came into focus when I approached, and my blurry eyes finally recognized Carl’s little terrier head barely above the surface of the water but still moving with his short arthritic legs keeping him afloat.
I can’t swim so I started yelling for Pretty who couldn’t hear me over the TV in the den. I walked as fast as I could to the back door yelling Carl’s in the pool, Carl’s in the pool!!
Pretty jumped up, ran past me to the swimming pool where Charly was still standing guard over Carl, and the next thing I saw while I tried to reach them was Pretty diving into the pool to lift Carl out of the freezing water, swimming him to the nearest ladder.
Minutes later we had wrapped the shivering Carl in towels and blankets in front of gas logs blazing in the den. I held him while an equally shivering Pretty changed out of her wet clothes. We had no idea how long he had been in the pool, how much water he swallowed, whether he would survive the whole ordeal.
You’re my hero, I said to Pretty when she walked into the den in dry clothes. She shook her head, but I repeated No, you are really my hero. Carl would be gone without your brave rescue. Let’s hope he pulls through tonight, Pretty replied.
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Carl two days later – with a look that might say you should have listened to Charly and Spike Friday night. First, you take me on a car trip across the country to a basketball tournament in Albany, New York and when I make it home from that adventure this week, you nearly let me drown in the swimming pool. Talk about March Madness, and thank God for Pretty and April, if you don’t mind me saying.
You know what, Carl? I don’t mind your saying, and I couldn’t agree more.
Penny is the newest addition to our good friend Susan’s farm in Elgin – Susan loves her Gamecock women’s basketball team almost as much as she loves Penny.
Here’s to new life in the spring, renewed hope in a future that includes another national title for Coach Staley and her Gamecock women in the NCAA tournament starting today in Columbia!
Four years ago I published this piece and today felt a need to remind ourselves and others of our power. To whom it may concern: Do Not Try to Control our Bodies. Bad idea. We will remember in November.
Huge thanks to my good Sister Marla Wood for posting this powerful image on her FB page. I thought when I saw it, wow, this is a great theme for Women’s History Month. Let’s get down to it.
In March, 2021 women are in powerful positions across the globe. Vice President Kamala Harris cast a deciding vote in the US Senate March 04th. to break a tie (50 Democrats for – 50 Republicans against) beginning debate on President Biden’s massive $1.9 trillion Covid Relief Bill approved by the House of Representatives. Bi-partisan support for the bill? No, not really.
But the first woman veep in American history who also serves constitutionally as President of the Senate said hey boys, either jump on this train to help people who are sick, jobless, grieving the loss of loved ones, struggling to keep food on the table and/or a roof over their heads for their children because of a pandemic the previous administration chose to ignore as science fiction – or don’t. This train is leaving the station.
Celebrate Women’s History Month by discovering the Wonder Woman you are!
I'll Call It Like I See It 
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