Blue-32-10 on Tuesday

This week's list is going to be dedicated to 10 memorable sports moments in my life - and 2 of them happen to have happened in the last few days!

My family was a soccer family - my dad, cousins, uncles - everyone played soccer. My mom was a soccer mom and she rocked at it! I loved lots of sports growing up - and tried to make a competition out of anything. I cheered and my brother played football in high school. I did gymnastics as a kid. My parents bought me a tennis racquet one year for Christmas that went missing when I took it to school. We watched all sorts of sports together as a family - including fake sports like wrestling. Athletic events or competitions or sports - whatever you want to call it - it's been a big part of my life (although you wouldn't know it if you looked at the shape I'm in). So without further ado - here are 10 memorable sports moments in my life - in no particular order.

1. OK - so I said no particular order, but let's get the obvious 800 pound gorilla out of the room. Gamecock football. I went to Carolina and suffered through two football seasons that amounted to a record of 1-21. Then we got a little bit good - good enough for Outback bowl wins and lucky enough to attract headliner coaches such as Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier. But each year, we fall short of a dream season. But the tide (pun intended) may be turning for USC. We had a major victory on Saturday as we beat top ranked Alabama and snapped their 19 game winning streak. This doesn't mean we are going to have a dream season - in fact, I have every confidence we will tank our season on a lowsy opponent in the near future - but Saturday was awesome. It felt good to be a Gamecock!

2. One afternoon when we were kids, my brother was playing basketball in the front yard with some neighborhood kids. My grandparents were over visiting with us too. My grandfather, PawPaw, went out in the yard and asked if he could hold the ball - and they all laughed and then obliged and gave him the ball. Then he went to the middle of the yard and turned away from the goal and tossed the ball backwards over his head and it SWOOSHED! Nothing but net. The kids were in awe and we were proud he was our grandpa!

3. Staying with basketball - Doug and I got to go a Spurs game in San Antonio in 2003. I bought him tickets to the game where they were going to retire David Robinson's jersey. David Robinson was an icon to Doug and it was so much fun getting to go to the game, see the team presented with their NBA champions rings from the previous season and then see them retire the jersey of one of the best guys all around to ever play the game.

4. Last night - Women's Rec Soccer - Indoors at the Plex. I played indoor soccer a few years ago for several seasons before I had Katie. I hadn't played since then and this season has been an eye opener to my own physical ability, or lack thereof. My team has had fun, but we have lost every game. (One game we lost 21-0.) But last night, we were the #10 team playing the #9 team (10 teams in the league) and this was our best shot of winning a game this season. They only had 4 players and we had 7. You can only have 6 on the field at a time including the goalie - but we went ahead and played down 2 people to even it up a bit. So we played 4v4 - and we WON! We won 16-6 and I scored 3 times. A hat trick! I've never scored three goals before in a game so it was a personal victory too! Go Night Sweats!

5. In 1996, our church youth group went to Atlanta to do some missions work at the Olympics. We didn't actually go to any events, but we got to see so many of the facilties and be surrounded by all the hoopla going on with something of that magnatude. We were in Atlanta at the time of the bombing in Centennial Park and I just remember the youth workers trying to get in touch with people back in Columbia to let them know we were ok. It was a crazy time and much of our trip was changed due to the bombing but it was still incredible to be around at the Olympics!

6. One summer in college I got to go to an MLB game in St. Louis. This was my first professional sporting event ever. I was really excited but the excitement faded a bit because I lost a farkle/bet and had to wear a batman mask for the duration of the game and had to pretend as if I were a vendor selling these masks. I took on the task and probably could've made some good money if I had actually had any masks to sell - you wouldn't believe how many people wanted to buy one.

7. I'm injury prone - but my first real, surgery requiring injury, came in 1997 while playing soccer for my high school. I was running alongside a girl for the other team and we both reached to kick the ball at the same time. Somehow, she stepped on my instep and my momentum kept me running but I couldn't really go anywhere. I fell to the ground in pain that I knew wasn't going away. I remember grabbing grass in my hands to somehow pull myself off the field. My dad drove our Trooper on the track and then we headed to the hospital. Sure enough, my ACL was torn along with some meniscus and my PCL - it's referred to as the Unhappy Triad in the Orthopedics world since it's the tearing of 3 things. I had surgery and rehabbed my knee for close to a year. I got back out on the field playing soccer again the next season only to tear my ACL in the other leg. And then the next year, I tore my meniscus again. To me, that's more deserving of the term Unhappy Triad.

8. I talked about it recently in another post - but watching Doug bowl 8 strikes in a row was one of the best things ever. To a non-bowler (me), that was pretty darn close to a perfect game and way more points than I will ever get bowling. He was so non-chalant and calm and collected, but alas there was one pin left standing after he bowled the 9th frame and the dream of a perfect game was over. But with his average at well over 200 these days, and frequently bowling 700 series in a night, I don't think a perfect 300 is too far in the future for him. I just hope I am there to see it!

9. I coached a little girls soccer team when I was in college. There were 8 and 9 year olds. They were undeniably cute and incredibly eager to learn soccer. I had a blast doing drills with them each week at practice and then buying ribbons for their hair for the games on Saturday. They learned some soccer skills and some fashion skills too - quite a combination! I can't wait to one day coach Katie in soccer.

10. Speaking of Katie, would you believe she's already completed a 10K? Ok, not really - but I was definitely pregnant with her when I did my first and only 10K back in 2008. I completed the Cooper River Bridge Run with Shelley and Jessica. I was 9 weeks pregnant and had 3 granola bars while walking to the starting line to keep from throwing up. The race went pretty well - we all finished in right at an hour - but most importantly - I finished with some awesome friends who never let me quit going over that bridge.

So sports fans, what are your most memorable???