I Love Maryland Women’s Basketball

Long-time readers of my blogs know that I loves me my women’s basketball. College, Pro, International, Olympic… I’ll watch and likely enjoy. But even among that embarrassment of riches, there is and always will be one team that has my heart: the University of Maryland Women’s Basketball Team.

So many things factor into this rather blatant love affair, not the least of which being that UM is my alma mater. I loved my school back then, and I love my school now. Like I tell people: if you cut me, I’ll bleed black and gold (or red and white, or some combination thereof, depending on the fashion of the day). That alone would have guaranteed my allegiance to the team but might not have forged a decades-long bond. Stuff like that requires a history.

I liked women’s basketball even when I was but a lowly underclassman. You see, many of my female friends in high school played basketball and other sports, so I had no prejudice about the passion or ability of women athletes. I started attending Maryland games because of the enjoyment of the game and because I was often on campus so late in the day that attending the games wasn’t onerous. Add in the facts that students got in free and Maryland was one of the top teams in the nation, and it was just a win-win.

So, I’m pretty much just doing the fan thing when, during the 1983 ACC Tournament, one of Maryland’s players, Lea Hakala, asked if anyone would take photos of her during the game. There weren’t any immediate takers, so I volunteered. I went down on the floor and shot some pics. I don’t know if they turned out at all (they probably didn’t), but it gave me the photography bug. So I bought some equipment and took a couple of rolls during Maryland’s opening round NCAA tournament game.

That summer, I resolved to get better as a photographer. I went down to [then Head Coach] Chris Weller’s basketball camp and took A LOT of pictures. After that, I became a fixture around the basketball team. I’d shoot photos during games and at some practices. I’d even be a practice punching bag sometimes (guys who’ve practiced against high-caliber women players know what I’m talking about).

The booster club for the women’s team, The Rebounders, started in 1979 blossomed in the 1982-83 season (the newsletter helped). Just prior to the 1983-84 season, this growing fan community became an officially sanctioned club of the university. That meant stuff like by-laws, officers, and other bureaucratic froo-froo-all. It just so happens that I was voted to be the first student representative of the Rebounders. I was sort of the liaison between the student body and the team, and I tried (boy did I try) to get any- and every-one of my fellow students to come and watch games.

So, through the 80s I was very much involved with the Women’s Basketball Team. Not exclusively, of course, as I was building up my creds as a sports photographer with other teams, schools, and organizations, but my heart was always with the Terps.

1990 saw me move away from the DC area, and that has been (to this day) a difficult separation. Like I said, I love my school and and I love my team. Back then, I’d get to see one or two Maryland games a season on TV…maybe. Thank goodness for the growth of the Internet. In recent years I’ve not only been able to watch non-televised games on-line, but I’ve been able to enjoy, however tenuously, my connection by watching Under the Shell, a behind-the-scenes reality series about the team that  has been going on since the year before their championship season.

Oh, that championship season. What a ride that was. With Under the Shell, I was able to watch from the beginning how this team that started mostly underclassmen over-achieved. How lucky was it for me that the region Maryland found themselves in for the NCAA tournament brought them to Albuquerque…on my doorstep? That’s when I found out that the Terrapin love goes both ways.

Not only was I reunited with fans from the way-back days, including (with great happiness on my part) the first president of the Rebounders with whom I served during those early years, but Coach B, Brenda Frese — the current Head Coach (who was still in elementary school when I started following the Terps…gosh, I’m old) — actually took a good hunk of her limited practice time to visit with me on the sidelines. Coach B is a class act all the way. I also got to visit a bit with her mother, who I found to be equally as generous.

With that great experience getting to reunite with my Terp family, including those of us who were there when attendance was measured in the (low) hundreds instead of being in five figures, the overtime victory over Duke in the championship game made for some memories that I’ll be treasuring.

There’s even a Terrapin connection with my attempts to help get a WNBA team into Albuquerque. I’ve already written about it, so have a peek if you’re curious (The WNBA in Albuquerque – Happening or Not?).

After all of that, is it any wonder that I’m a true and lifelong fan of Maryland Women’s Basketball? The only possible negative of any of the experience is that it was drummed into me how important it was to not commit any NCAA violations as a fan/booster. When I was a student, it wasn’t a problem. The players were also my classmates, after all. But after I graduated, I found that in order to ensure the integrity of the program I had to stay at arms-length with the players at times (e.g. no more free pics). Even now, with something as seemingly innocuous as Facebook, I’ll only contact graduated players. (Coaches, of course, I don’t have this problem with.) I don’t know well what the current NCAA limits are for booster/player contact, so I figure that it’s better to be safe than sorry.*

So…when you see me cheering on my Lady Terps, you know that it comes from a place a little deeper than their happening to be affiliated with the same school I went to. To me they will always be family. Therefore, when I gush (and you know I will, if it comes to that), it’s from the heart. But more than that, they are worth watching. If you are a fan of women’s basketball, or if you are in any way connected to UM, past or present, then you should support this great and storied program.

I love women’s basketball, but I love Maryland Women’s Basketball above all. Second place isn’t even close.

* UPDATE: Further research has shown that I’ve been wise to be cautious. Having been both a booster and an officer, I have contact restrictions like any other university representative of the program would have. More-or-less. In perpetuity.

Links:
Living History: Day 1 – Mary Lucas
Rebounder Memories (pdf – 4MB) smaller online version here