Living The High Life (Debut Post)

I am living the high life. I could not possibly imagine a better situation to be in as a sports fan. What a perfect time to start a blog. My favorite football team has just tied the record for most wins in a season. Three months ago my favorite baseball team won its second World Series championship in three years. My favorite basketball team is off to one of the best starts in NBA history. My home town hockey team looks to be in the thick of the playoff race at the end of the season. I know, Most of you readers probably hate Boston and everyone from there this year, but I had to put my emotions into writing.

This past year, has been too good to be true. I have went from being a fan of one of the most tortured sports cities in the world to possibly the most successful. Now, you would think that my Boston teams would be enough to satisfy me. Well, you would be wrong.

See I am currently a sophomore in college (Yes, I am having a blast and living the ultimate college dream.) But, I am at a University that has also had some success in the sports world the last couple years. I attend USF, no, not the University of San Francisco, but The University of South Florida. I am well aware that USF is not in “South” Florida. And also, with much do respect to our neighboring schools, we do not liked to be linked with the group of up and coming football schools in Florida (FAU and UCF).

See, this year our football team after just eleven years of existence rose as high as #2 in the country. The thrill of getting national recognition completely changed my university. Sure, we lost three straight games after being ranked #2 (I will explain my use of “we” later), but do not try and tell a USF student that was our fifteen minutes of fame. The University of South Florida has arrived, and is here to stay.

As I said earlier, this football season changed an entire university. No longer do people see you wearing a USF shirt and ask, “Where is USF?” You cannot go anywhere in Tampa without seeing something USF, You cannot travel somewhere without hearing a Go Bulls! And, most importantly, you can feel the buzz around campus. The excitement all week before a game is unreal. Going to games, and screaming at the top of our lungs, celebrating a crying with every win and loss makes me honestly believe, as I think many other students do, that we are a part of the team.

When we began the season 6-0, I felt the greatest feeling in the world. It was pure bliss. After the team beat Auburn in Auburn, my friends and I flooded out of apartment and ventured towards campus. It was crazy. All you could hear were cars honking, chants of U-S-F, people yelling Go Bulls, and just pure shrieks of excitement. That is when I knew we had arrived. We went onto the #2 ranking, followed by a three game losing streak, and another three game winning streak. USF earned a trip to The Brut Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. The Sun Bowl is the second oldest bowl game, in which we got completely dominated. (I will expand on the bowl in another post).

Anyways, this excitement created by the football team has not left USF. Walking around campus today I noticed, nearly every single person was wearing green or gold. No, today was not a game day or anything special. But, maybe it is special. It is special to be a part of a major university. That combined with the success of my hometown sports teams has me living the high life.