I received an e-mail from Windham Mountain today saying that they are opening the mountain early this year - this weekend! I can't believe that it will actually be open, I guess it is the silver lining in the weather being so cold already! While I won't go skiing this weekend because I am going to the final Penn State football game of the season, I will definitely go next weekend (after Thanksgiving) for my first tracks of the season.
Yesterday, I had a chance to play Wheelchair Basketball at halftime of the Penn State Men's Basketball game against the New Jersey Institute of Technology. What an experience! We started by practicing in the basketball team's practice gym (under the stands). I had never seen it before because that gym is not open to the public. It was huge! It had six basketball hoops and was equipped with an electric rebound machine and lots of other things I did not even know existed!
We played the "All Star Team of Assistant Coaches" composed of coaches from a variety of Penn State teams. After a warm-up game in the practice gym we rolled our wheelchairs out to the sideline of the actual basketball court. We had to wait about 10 minutes to go on, but it did not seem that long at all. It was exciting to watch a college basketball game from so close!
When it was our turn to go on, the announcer said all of our names over the loud speaker and what sports we participated in. With the Nittany Lion, our university mascot, as the referee we had a jump ball and started the game. We played for six minutes and I scored a basket and played very good defense. I set about seven picks and our team forced a lot of turnovers. We beat the "All Star Team of Assistant Coaches" by a score of 10 - 2.
It was an amazing experience. The arena was huge and had a big jumbotron above the court. While the stands were empty (there were only about 400 or 500 people in attendance), it was very fun to play in an arena of that size (seating over 15,000 people). The crowd was getting into the game and rooted for our team the whole way. When the other team had to make substitutes, the crowd "boo"ed them and every time we had the ball, the crowd cheered for us and screamed whenever we scored a basket.
I had six friends in attendance who told me that I was on the jumbotron for at least 20 seconds after I scored my basket. They also said that it looked like nobody left the arena during halftime because they wanted to see the game - it is nice to attend a university where all of the athletics are supported by the fans.
One of my friends took a lot of pictures and you can see some of them below:
The team is all lined up and ready to take the court.
After our team makes a basket, we are off to play defense.
This is my basket. I am at the bottom left of the shot and the ball is right above the hoop.
This is the really big jumbotron!
One of my teammates, Rohan, made a shot towards the end of the game.
This is the Nittany Lion, our mascot and referee.
Wheelchair Basketball was a great experience and I am definitely looking forward to our next halftime show sometime in January or February of 2009!
Changing topics a bit, I am really looking forward to this weekend's football game against Michigan State. My brother, father, and uncle are all coming to the game (I bought their tickets today)! Kim Seevers (ASF Operations Director) will also be in attendance to hopefully watch the Nittany Lions clinch the Big Ten Championship for the first time since 2005 and win their first Rose Bowl bid since 1995!
I have no tests until after my Thanksgiving break, so I am looking forward to being able to relax a bit before I go back home on Saturday night.
Lets all hope that this cold spell continues and Windham is able to lay down a nice layer of snow so we can ski good conditions all season long!
- Tracker
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"Everything comes too late for those who only wait." - Elbert Hubbard
