August 28,2009

 

March of 2007, I sent an email to ECU's Athletic Director, Terry Holland. In this email I discussed the need for bathrooms at the softball field.  I even attached a file of a very basic design for such a building.  Those of you who know me, know my story about taking my granddaughters to the game and them, as young as they were, questioning why they had to use the porta-johns with the new baseball stadium so close.  They just didn't understand why the girls didn't have something nicer, too.

Well, from this initial discussion with Terry, who graciously emailed me back telling me we need to do something, but we need to do it right, comes a new softball stadium, new track, new soccer complex, and a new facility to house lockers and offices for several sports. 

In March of 2010, 3 years later, a new softball stadium will be complete (weather permitting) with bathrooms, press box, concessions, et all. 

 

Tracey Kee, you, your coaches, your players now and past, deserve this for all of the years of dedication and hard work that has gone into this program both on the field and off the field.

Thanks to all of the people involved that helped make this dream of equality come true.  Continue to stay involved so that the future remains bright for all of our ECU Student Athletes.

 

Today, August 28, you can officially believe that the ECU Softball Complex is a reality.  There may only be a fence, but a fence around the "construction site". Today is the beginning of a dream "done right".

 

On a side note:

 

Feeling the joy of victory and the agony of defeat is not a feeling just for the young.  I personally can vouch for that.  In early August of this year I traveled with my 55+ basketball team representing NC to the 2009 National Senior Games in Palo Alto, CA. 

I stood on the floor of Maples Pavilion at Stanford and look up into the stands with much emotion as we warmed up before our first game. At 60 years old, I was fulfilling a dream, a dream I left in high school.

We played hard and won our first game, you would have thought we won the medal already the way we celebrated.  We finished second in our pool and moved on to day 2 where all 16 teams would be matched up. Our first game of the day was against the Virginia team ironically from my hometown.  Again we played hard, but after leading most of the game, we fell behind in the last couple of minutes and lost, putting us in the loser's bracket.  We played and lost to the Oklahoma team. This abruptly ended our dream. 
That feeling of defeat was a new one to me.  Not saying that I never lost before, but a loss of this magnitude was different.  Becky, my teammate, and I sat outside the court for about 45 minutes before the agony of defeat changed to wow, what a great experience.  This was our first trip to the nationals.  We won some and lost some, but we know we were winners just for being there.  We appreciated the years of hard work we put into getting this far, and we came away with lots of knowledge about competition at all ages.

 

When I watch our Pirates play softball, I will now understand a little bit better what a loss means.  Don't ever let some one say, "Oh, it's just a game."  Tomorrow may be better, but at that very moment win or lose, it is life.