Indulge Me....

I'm not going to put up a bunch of pictures or smack-talk any "supposed" friends on here about the game tomorrow, but I want to tell you how sad I am that we have come to the end of an era.
When we were in Germany, Dave's boss (now 4-star Gen. Marty Dempsey) encouraged Dave to apply to UNC for the Army's grad school program he had recently been accepted to. Gen Dempsey went to Duke and since the program Dave wanted wasn't offered at Duke he said Dave just had to go to Chapel Hill--that it would be the best experience we could have.

He was so right.

Living in North Carolina was wonderful. We all love it--we hope to retire there someday, I plan on spending at least part of every summer at the beach there, Jarrett stayed there for school, we keep in touch with many of our friends from there.
But the best thing about North Carolina is the Tarheels.
We moved to NC the year after they won a national championship in basketball (they win nat'l championships in all kinds of sports...). Dave is, as most of you know, an avid sports fan and already knew just about everything about the up and coming team of freshmen. That year, 2006, was supposed to be a rebuilding year. Most of the national championship team was gone, we were left with a couple of guys off the bench and a bunch of newbies.
That year was magical.
And so have been the 3 after it.

Our family has grown to love those boys-following their statistics and records and injuries just like we've always known them. We've bought scalped tickets for the nosebleed section, sat in the student section, taken vacations down to watch their first practice and "Late Night with Roy." We gather around the television for every game now, wearing our Carolina Blue gear, cheering and groaning and yelling at the refs, and hoping that THIS will be their year. And wishing it would never end.

Tomorrow will be the last game those "freshmen" will play in the Dean Dome. They play Duke. On their senior night. Their first year they played Duke in Cameron for the last game of the regular season and Dave and Jarrett were on hand to witness our group of inexperienced boys take it to JJ Redick on HIS senior night. I hope they win. Of course. But, really, I wish they didn't have to play tomorrow. I wish they could stay there and do this again every year. There will be new players next year. We'll grow to like, maybe even love, them and it'll still be exciting every October when practice starts.

But, just like when we lived in Georgia in 1991, the memory of Sid Bream limping around the bases ("Braves Win! Braves win! Braves win!") remained one of our fondest memories and we never wanted that season to end. We still think of the Braves as that particular roster (Glavine, Smoltz, Justice, Sanders...).
Maybe it's because we move so much and when we get someplace we want to latch on to something to make it "home." Maybe it's that both of these times, we had just finished going through a long deployment and the sports gave us all a connection and relaxation...I don't know. I do know that watching them brings my family all together-and keeps us together even as everyone is growing up and away.

To Tyler, Bobby, and Danny, thank you for the great times the last 4 years. Thank you for playing with courage and tenacity and integrity. And thanks for just being so darn good. It has been a pleasure to watch you. I know there are still two tournaments to play. I hope you go far. But the end of the era in the Dean Dome has come and I'm sorry about it.

Tomorrow we'll probably get some trash-talk email from Gen Dempsey. And we'll give it right back....
then we'll gather around the TV, with Jarrett calling and texting, and watch the "boys" in their home whites play one last time in the Dean Smith Center.