Basketball

Steve and Christina are lucky to have lots of fascinating students in their classes. Each semester we have student athletes, but to this point we haven't really ever attended their games. We were invited to the women's volleyball game this year as Favorite Professors, and we took the girls with us. They were a bit scared by the mascot, Monte, and we left quite early, but it started us thinking that we should try again. So we took the girls to a women's basketball game. And Clara and Elena were hooked.

They especially took a shine to two of the players, Sarah Ena and Shante Nance Johnson. Their favorite is Sarah, and they run around the house talking about "Sarah Ena, Sarah Ena" and pretending to do things like her. They made up a Sarah Ena dance, they "eat like Sarah Ena!" and we can get them to brush their teeth at night if we tell them we're looking in their mouths to see if Sarah Ena is hiding. Hilarious! Their sweet cousins sent the girls a basketball hoop, and you can seem them practicing to be just like Sarah Ena:


Steve suggested we take the girls back for another game today, and we did. Sarah and Shante are both students in our classes, so we had told them about the fascination. They both waved to the girls from the court, and Sarah even paused in the game to give Clara a high five. We wish we'd captured their little faces - Clara was completely thrilled.

At the end of the game, we waited for the players to come out. Shante came out first, and came over to meet the girls and sign little basketballs for them. They were a bit awestruck here, but really happy. The fellow in there is Shante's husband, Anthony - he's on the men's team, and could be heading for the NBA soon!


Then, out came Sarah Ena. Clara had been telling me that Sarah was going to throw the ball to her, and you have to see her joy when this actually happened - she bounces right off the screen in this video. Sarah also signed balls for them - they felt so special!


Then, Clara and Elena asked Shante and Sarah to come out to the court to play with them. Mind you, these players had just finished starring in (and winning!) a pretty busy game, but still they took the girls out the court and helped them play.


These are some truly wonderful people - thanks Sarah and Shante!

Oh, and one more funny story is still left to tell. When Sarah lifted Clara up to help her play, she was at first thrilled. Then Sarah started saying: "Throw it! In the basket! Throw!" and Clara started saying: "No throw, no throw!" with some consternation. Christina went to get her from Sarah, telling her it was fine not to throw. But we were puzzled, since she loved throwing the ball before. Then Clara said: "No throw! Owie! Fall down. Boomie!" And then we got it - the poor girl had just watched Sarah Ena play a whole game where she grabbed something and ran around throwing it in the net. How could Clara know that Sarah was not about to do the same thing with HER? Clara thought SHE was going to get thrown in the net! As soon as we told her that wasn't going to happen, she was very happy to watch Sarah make a basket with her own little ball.

So funny to see the world as a two year old!