I went to 4 football games over the 4 years I was in college. The Cortaca Jug was “The Biggest Little Game In The Nation” for our small D3 liberal arts school. Go Bombers! For those of us who weren’t actually playing in the game, it was really more about renting a school bus, stuffing seltzer, vodka, and tortilla chips into a backpack, and going all in for a Saturday of school-spirit-themed partying. Needless to say, college athletics is not a thread in the fabric of my formative experience. That was until I married a collegiate athlete.
I like to say that I am “tennis by marriage.” Meaning I had exactly zero ties to the world of tennis, let alone any understanding of the sport, until I met Lee Singer. So when we moved to his college town last year, access to not only college athletics, but his college’s athletics became a thread that began to stitch our getting settled into Charlottesville.
Of course there are the tennis matches, which I actually now really love and are quite fun to attend. We also get to watch field hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and swimming with actual gold medal Olympians! Having easy access almost every weekend for our daughter to see female athletes at the top of their game is a gift we are grateful for. But of course, being in an ACC college town there is Football.
I’m here for a tailgate, give me all those game day snacks. I live for the marching band because damn, those are next level athletes IMHO. I bring my back-supporting stadium seat like the classy 35-year-old gal I am. But in all honesty, I’m not your most invested fan. I get a little antsy (so many timeouts all the time) and I am totally cool with bailing in the third quarter to beat the traffic home.
And yet…
There I am in the stands, blubbering with wet streaks on my cheeks the moment Cav Woman1 rides out on her actual horse as the crowd roars. This is not my school. I enjoy sports but I don’t like WORSHIP them. I am literally the ever-iconic scene from Mean Girls:
It’s pretty par for the course (please applaud me for that golf reference) for me to be quietly weeping, or even openly sobbing, in public. I’m a sensitive little sponge and any display of humanity and joy releases my floodgates.
So when I talked through this with Lee and he asked me, “You know what that is?” I just assumed it was me being me, a tender puddle of feels at all times. But his response was two words:
It’s Sports. The capital S is my emphasis and it feels correct.
The atmosphere of people coming together to root for a common thing creates an energy that is palpable. Sports is a thing that uplifts and creates connected joy and heartbreak. Strangers have something to bond over, there is shared language, ceremonial songs, seasonal rituals, and for some, long histories that tie them to a family of origin.
It’s unique and sad that this only tends to happen during a pastime, music concert, or sporting event. And it’s still beautiful.
So I’ll be out there in the bleachers, tears streaming down my face behind my sunnies, basking in the small beauty of a collective coming together, while also asking “Why are they taking another time out?”
I’m so glad you’re here and would be even more jazzed if you tapped the <3 to give this a “like” and/or shared it with a friend. I post new entries once or twice a month and you can catch up on my thoughts about being medicore, boobs, regret, mothering, the internet, and finding meaning in it all until the next one arrives.
Julie Caruccio became the new Cavalier on Horseback in 2022. She took over the role to become the first woman rider in the school’s history.