I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: sports

  • March Madness on the Road with Pretty and Carl from South Carolina to New York!


    Our family road trips following the Texas years have been far and few between as my cousin Martin used to say, but March Madness brings the passions that are often an impetus for wild yearnings to be a part of something bigger than our living rooms. Before you could say Go Gamecocks, Carl and I were passengers in our Grannymobile being driven by Pretty to watch our Gamecock women’s basketball team play in the Sweet Sixteen in Albany, New York, a mere 853 miles from our home in West Columbia, South Carolina.

    We were welcomed by North Carolina, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York on our trip – but Virginia’s Blue Star Memorial Highway pet rest area was Carl’s personal favorite. Pretty and I oohed and aahed over the beautiful Shenandoah Valley in Virginia between the Blue Ridge mountains to the east and the Alleghenies to the west while Carl slept in the back seat. He missed breathtaking vistas during that 140-mile portion of the trip but didn’t seem bothered when he woke up in West Virginia.

    Gamecock mascot Cocky cheers with fans at team send-off in their Albany hotel on Game Day, Baby!

    Associate Head Coach Lisa Boyer and me in hotel lobby

    (hm. I possibly had cocktail before this picture was taken)

    Head Coach Dawn Staley leads team through hotel lobby to bus

    basketball buddy Brian, me and Pretty in MVP Arena on Game Day

    basketball buddy Robert with new Gamecock friends we met at game

    Brian, Robert, me and Pretty thrilled as Gamecock women wins in Albany send them to 2024 Final Four!

    Consider the 2023-24 South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball team which at the end of the regular season + the SEC tournament + the first two games of the 2024 NCAA women’s basketball tournament + the Sweet Sixteen + the Elite Eight = the only undefeated team on the road to Cleveland, Ohio, for the Final Four. Go Gamecocks!

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    We’ll be watching March Madness this weekend at home from our living room – still trying to catch our breaths from road trip – catching up with laundry, too.

    (Thanks to Robert, Brian, and Pretty for photos used today.)

  • March Gladness


    wishing our friends in cyberspace March Gladness!

    particularly nine-day-old Penelope a/k/a Penny

    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!

    Go Gamecocks!

  • Ella’s first soccer match

    Ella’s first soccer match


    four-year-old Ella with her coach (Daddy Drew)

    two-year-old sister Molly on the move behind them

    kids that play together…don’t hate each other when they’re four

    some confusion about where to kick ball

    on final play Ella went down the field and scored

    (luckily for her team!)

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    Special thanks to another grandmother Lolly for these great photos which captured the joy and innocence of young children. Ella’s Nana and Naynay were far too entertained by the team’s goalie who stood behind the goal to avoid balls being kicked toward him. Focus on the game, grands.

    Unfortunately, Coach Drew will not be available for the next few weeks. He’s having a medical procedure related to an injury he suffered playing league basketball several weeks ago. No genetic testing necessary for Ella’s competitive spirit, and fingers crossed for Daddy Drew.

    By the way, the Republican Primary in South Carolina coincided with Ella’s first soccer match. The results after the polls closed later that evening heavily favored an ex-president who was on the ballot again – thank goodness for the soccer match in the morning which gave me hope for a future generation that focused on the things where, as Maya Angelou said, human beings are more alike than unalike.

  • say it ain’t so, Rafa

    say it ain’t so, Rafa


    Rafael Nadal announced yesterday he will become the tennis ambassador to Saudi Arabia in an effort to promote the visibility of tennis in the kingdom which will open a Rafa Nadal Academy there for the purpose of developing young talent in the country.

    “Everywhere you look in Saudi Arabia, you can see growth and progress and I’m excited to be part of that,” Nadal wrote in a statement. “I continue to play tennis as I love the game. But beyond playing I want to help the sport grow far and wide across the world and in Saudi there is real potential.” (Josh Fiallo, The Daily Beast, January 16, 2024)

    Okay, cyberspace friends. Hopefully your jaw found a soft landing on that news. My jaw felt like the ground hit by the ball dropped in Times Square in New York City at midnight on New Year’s Eve. I felt gobsmacked, somehow personally betrayed by a close friend. Obviously Rafa and I aren’t close personally, but I have loved him throughout his career since he began playing professional tennis in 2001 as a sleeveless young fourteen year old boy with more guts than glory back then. It was the same year Pretty and I got together, and we will have our twenty-third anniversary next month.

    My feelings for Rafa were that he was not only one of the greatest tennis players of all time but also a humble, good guy who had respect for the game of tennis and everyone who played it. Say it ain’t so, Rafa. Where in the world did you look in Saudi Arabia to see “growth and progress everywhere?” Did you look at their treatment of homosexuals, for example?

    The Wahabbi interpretation of Sharia law in Saudi Arabia maintains that acts of homosexuality should be disciplined in the same way as adultery – with death by stoning. Homosexuality or nonconformant gender expression can also be punished by corporal punishment, flogging, imprisonment or forced ‘conversion’ therapy. In 2019, the Saudi Arabian government orchestrated a mass-execution of 37 men who were accused of espionage or terrorism, five of whom were also convicted of same-sex intercourse after one was tortured into confessing. (Fair Planet May 27, 2023)

    Rafa, the following tidbit from the Human Dignity Trust hits closer to home for me – did you see it?

    In April (2020) a Yemeni blogger living in Saudi Arabia was arrested for advocating for equality for LGBT people. In July he was sentenced to ten months’ imprisonment and a fine, followed by deportation, under ‘public indecency’ laws. While in detention he was subjected to solitary confinement, beatings, and torture.

    While the Saudi Tourism Authority has apparently updated its website according to CNN Travel in May, 2023 to say gay travelers are welcome in the kingdom in an effort to attract more overall revenue from international tourists, no governmental assurances have been made to make LGBTQ+ individuals feel safe.

    And Rafa, did you read this post on the status of women in Saudi Arabia by Tracey Shelton in January, 2023 on abc.net.au?

    Rei na Wehbi, MENA regional campaigner for Amnesty International, said while Saudi Arabia is “rebranding its image” as a progressive state, the underlying reality is very different. “‘Positive’ changes have mostly been social reforms and are very far from genuine human rights reforms in Saudi Arabia,” she said.

    “They are meant to deflect attention from the continued brutal crackdown on activists and human rights defenders and other flagrant human rights violations.”

    She said most human rights defenders, independent journalists, writers and activists have been arbitrarily detained. In 2019, just as the kingdom announced that women could drive, the women who had campaigned tirelessly and publicly for precisely this right were arrested and locked away. More recently, Salma al-Shehab, a PhD student and activist who posted support for women’s rights activists on Twitter, was re-sentenced to 27 years in prison in January, 2023.

    Money talks, right, Rafa? But will you sell your soul for twenty pieces of silver…or twenty gazillion? Will you sacrifice your personal integrity for an alliance with a country recognized around the globe as a repeated offender of human rights – not to mention terrorist organizations connected to the events of 9-11 in New York City? I cringe at the thought.

    I am a seventy-seven year old woman who has loved you like a family member for more than two decades, but you have broken my heart over your alliance with a country that in my opinion is aligned with evil.

    Say it ain’t so, Rafa.

    ****************

    And don’t even get me started on the Women’s Tennis Association going to Saudi Arabia for its season-ending finale this year. OMG. What are they thinking?

  • my motivation is tomorrow

    my motivation is tomorrow


    I am celebrating two twenty-three year anniversaries in 2024: the first and most important one will be on a specific day in February (the 9th.) because that was the day my life with Pretty began; the second anniversary has no specific date, but 2001 was also the year Rafa Nadal became a professional tennis player who captured my admiration and affection throughout his lengthy career. I admit to shedding a few tears this morning as I watched him wave to the crowds in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia following his 3-set loss to Australian Jordan Thompson in the quarterfinals of the Brisbane International tournament which I expect he knew was his last hurrah with the crowds in the stands there.

    The New Indian Express June 03, 2017

    Nadal’s passion for perfection in the game of tennis has been a thrilling journey that has entertained millions of fans around the world. His humility regardless of outcomes in the battles on the tennis courts has been a unique indication of the character that makes him a role model for professional athletes in any sport.

    Just one day at a time, right? Rafa, Pretty and I have been together for nearly a third of my life, and I will miss watching the dynamic Spanish tennis player whose motivation has always been to make tomorrow better with the illusion he was going to get better that day. I believe Pretty and I will continue to share his dream one day at a time with each passing year we are fortunate enough to be together.

    All of us can make 2024 a better tomorrow if we meet each day with an expectation that there is an opportunity, there is the possibility of doing better than we did the day before.

    I will close with the words I’ve heard Rafa say countless times during the on court interviews following his wins in a match, “thank you, thank you very much.”