An initial blog about Sports

Next to food, family and friends, SPORTS are what's up around here. We play sports, we watch sports and we organize sports. One time, my friend, Cindy and her family were coming from Raleigh to visit us in Shelby. They had not been to our house before and weren't really sure where we lived. She said they turned onto our street and when she saw all kinds of balls in the driveway, she knew she was at the right house.

Sports is such a passion at our house that once a friend stopped by and I had the TV on Home and Garden. He just stared at me for a minute and said, "This is the first time I have ever been in your house that ESPN wasn't on!"

We have been blessed with some amazing sports adventures and some amazing relationships that have grown out of sports. We love team sports and individual sports. Early on, the boys played football, soccer and basketball. By high school, David had lettered in wrestling, track and football. His passion is football and he has just finished spring football at Wofford College. Jay played football and soccer and played them well, but really early on his passion for basketball was very clear. Both boys were a part of championship teams in high school - David's 2005 and 2006 State Football Championship teams and Jay's 2009 State Basketball Championship team, a first for Shelby High school.

Shelby High School sports could be a whole blog of it's own. The traditions, the fans, the championships are legendary - once a Golden Lion, ALWAYS a Golden Lion.

Next to Shelby High and Wofford, we love Tarheel Basketball. We love Tarheel Football too, but mostly for the Tailgating! We tailgate alot. You might say Tailgating R US. Recently we even tailgated at a TENNIS match. In FEBRUARY. In the SNOW. No kidding. I have pictures.

So, the game plan of this exercise is to blog for one year about cooking/gardening and sports.

This has been an amazing week in sports on a national level. The NCAA was full of drama and handwringing, a cinderella team, a David and Goliath showdown. Goliath won this time, but it was a classic. David says that's why they call it March Madness. The games were wild and the stories behind the games were wilder. Easter Saturday night, 15 or so of us crowded into our little den and watched what Lynn called 'the little boy' coaching Butler to the Finals. But the thing that sticks in my mind the most about this NCAA is the gruff coach lying nose to nose on the floor with his injured senior point guard - consoling him and telling him that he loved him.

On the heels of March Madness, we have the Master's practice rounds starting. The most manicured golf course in the world and the prestige of trying to win the green coat are as much a part of spring as lettuce and onions. But this year, the big story is Tiger Woods and his return to golf after the world found out he was human after all. He has just held his first press conference and the golf talk was way overshadowed by the admission that the worst thing that has happened to him throughout the whole ordeal is that he missed his son's first birthday.

The action in sports; the training, the preparation, the strategy, the talent are all intriguing. But it's the emotion in sports - that's what's up.