I remember when Coach Ryne Lightfoot first told us that we were going to play Notre Dame in a meeting that we had right around the time that class started. Going to Bethel and being so close to Notre Dame my teammates and I have always wanted a chance to play against them. I was excited from the very second he told us. From the time we were told about the game until the game last night, the motivation for it was in the back of my mind during every workout, practice, and lift. I knew that we had a chance to compete with them and a shot at winning. During conditioning back in August, our focus was always Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Notre Dame. Ryne reminded us that we couldn't forget about the two opponents we played before them, or all of the opponents after. Which I didn't, but my mind was still focused on fighting the Irish.
Fastforward 9 weeks later: 3 weeks of conditioning, 6 weeks of practice, 1 scrimmage, and two games later and it's November 2. I am starting at November 2 because we had the awesome opportunity to practice at Purcell Pavilion on Thursday night. I was so excited for that practice and very thankful that we got to practice there. I remember pulling into ND in the Bethel vans and I was already ecstatic. It's not every day you get to practice in a place like that, let alone play a game the very next night. We entered the Joyce Center and were escorted to our locker room. I got ready as fast as I could because I wanted to get out there and get some shots up. I remember walking through the tunnel onto the court and I was going to try and keep a straight face, but that didn't happen. I walked out onto the court and had the biggest smile on my face. From ear to ear, I couldn't stop. I felt like I was a kid living his dream. I went through my warm up shooting routine and then I just kept taking it all in. I sat down in one of the nice court side seats and couldn't help but look up into the rafters at all the banners. I remember shooting free throws and looking down to dribble right before I shoot and seeing ACC on the court...we were about to play a team in the ACC. One of the top teams in the ACC and one of the best teams in the country. Not to mention, they have the pre-season ACC player of the year in Bonzie Colson who is also the pre-sesaon national player of the year, which is a huge honor. One of the things that made it so different, was how bright it was on the court. It was hard to see the ball on rebounds and shooting from any spot besides the top of the key was a little tricky because of the bright lights in the back ground. It was so cool. The practice that night had a different energy to it, adrenaline was already kicking in. We played music the entire time and we got after it, it was a lot of fun. Practice went by so fast that night and I walking off the court into the locker room and I could not wrap my head around the fact that we finally got to play there the very next night. After practice that night it was like any other night for me and my friends, we got back to Bethel and Paul and I got up some shots, took and ice bath, and then me and some of my buddies went to Chick-Fil-A. Then we chilled in the room and played Little League World Series on the Wii and went to bed at a fairly decent time. Going to sleep Thursday night wasn't that hard. What made it tough was the level of excitement that was built up. Not fear, we were not scared.
Game day. It was finally here. Friday was pretty normal too. Nothing too out of the ordinary was going on. There was a certain buzz around campus of excitement. It may have not been talked about a ton but I could feel it. People were wishing me and my teammates good luck all day. It was a lot of fun. It was funny because this game didn't even count on our record. It meant a lot to me and my teammates. My phone kept blowing up all day from friends and family wishing me and the team good luck. I was so excited. I try to get a nice power nap in on game days and this nap was not as long as it could've been. I woke up at 2:30 and headed to the gym. I love to get a good lift in every day with our manager, Will Abbit. So I walked over the to the gym with him and we got in a great lift and got a couple of shoots up as well. We didn't have our pre-game meal until 4:30 and the locker room was filled with a bunch of guys by 3:50. Everyone was excited for sure. I remember walking into the coaches office to get some coffee and seeing my man Mike Werner all dressed up in a fresh looking suit and that got me even more excited. The encounters I had throughout the day with my friends and coaches are what made me even more excited and even more thankful for so many things in this life. It's now 5 o'clock and it was time to head over to ND. Music was blaring through all of our headphones as we pulled up and excitement was out of this world.
We arrived at the arena and were escorted into our locker room again. I felt famous, I felt like those big time players you see walking through the arena all swaged out for the game, on their way to the locker room. As soon as we stepped foot into the locker room I noticed all these coolers and there and they were full of so much Gatorade. That was super cool too. It's the small things some times. Again, I started getting changed and I could not help but get ready quickly. As I walked through the tunnel onto the court, the music was blaring and chills just shot through my body. My dream was always to play college basketball and I know that I accomplished that and am so happy about it, but that moment yesterday was like reaching that dream that you have the bar set so high for. It's almost like the impossible dream, which I hate to say, but ultimately somewhat true. Remember though, anything is possible. I remember getting on the court around 5:40 so that gave me about 20 minutes to take everything in before we started our 60 minute warm up at 6:00. I remember going through our dynamics and looking down to the other end of the court and seeing The Irish warm up. They were some big, strong, and athletic dudes. As time clock kept winding down, more and more people started filling the seats. I read on Twitter that it was the first Notre Dame Men's Basketball exhibition game to sell out since 1985. At 30 minutes till game time we always go back into the locker room to have a little talk before things get going and when we ran back onto the court and the arena was even more filled up I was even more jacked out of my mind. This was by far the most people I had ever gotten to play in front of and I was not going to take this opportunity for granted. This might be weird but I love doing it, whenever we have games I love to look in the crowd at my friends and family just to see who is there. All of the parents had tickets right behind the bench so they had some pretty nice seats. I was only able to find them and the B3 boys. The lights on the court were so bright that it was hard to look up and find people. It was so surreal. Every single moment of it. I tired to recognize some people but all I could see was a sea of blue way up top in the bleachers. The warm up clock struck 0:00 and it was game time. We lined up for the National Anthem and I love to pray during the Anthem and I closed my eyes to pray and as soon as the singer finished I opened them and I had forgotten where I was at during my prayer. It was one of the most surreal feelings I have ever felt. It was game time. Going out there and playing against a great team like that was so much fun. I won't get into much of the details about the actual game. It was the most fun I had ever had playing in a basketball game. I can't put into the words the emotion that I felt last night while playing. It was so much fun. We may have lost, but we put up a great fight and being down by 9 with 11 minutes left was a great accomplishment. I fell in love with the game yet again. Going in, we wanted to play Bethel Basketball and we wanted to earn respect from the community and also the Notre Dame players and coaching staff. We did that too. Each and every player and coach had a positive thing to say to me my teammates after the game when we shook hands. It was an incredible experience.
I want to express my thanks to everyone who came out to the game as well. Thank you to my awesome family and friends for coming out. I know that being in college a lot of students don't have too much money so to see so many Bethel students meant so much to me. You didn't have to spend money to come watch us play, but you did. I am so thankful for all of the fans who came out from the community as well. It was a humbling experience to be able to play in front of so many people. I also want to thank all my friends and family for the good luck texts and good game texts as well. Those are always so encouraging.
You can say that this was just a game...but it was way more than that.
I hope that switching up the blog today was cool with you and I hope you enjoy reading about the experience of a lifetime. I know that some day I will definitely be telling my kids all about the night on November 3, 2017.
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