The first lasts

Well, I finally realized that time is running out for me at Stonehill. In principle, time was running out for me from the day I first arrived, 42 months ago, but I obviously didn't think about it for a long time. Even during senior year, I haven't though about it a lot, but with my intramural basketball career officially over as of last night, and my basketball broadcasting career likely over tonight, those are some things that I actually realize I won't have anymore.

Intramural basketball might be the most fun intramural I've played. Freshman year, we had it in Merkert, because that was the year that the Sports Complex was thisclose to collapsing upon itself. Sophomore year, we made the playoffs (with what I'm pretty sure was a 2-3 regular season record), and was my only playoff appearance in my first three years of IM sports. Not really sure what happened junior year, maybe an off year or something. We made the playoffs this year and lost in the quarterfinals last night, but it was still great to be able to play with the same guys for all four years, the team I started with in O'Hara freshman year. AND I ended up with 48 points in six games, a lifetime-best 8.0 points per game. Not to mention the two final games of my IM basketball career were both double-digit scoring affairs. Pretty awesome.

And later tonight, I'll call my last men's basketball game of my Stonehill career. The women play in the conference quarterfinals on Sunday, but I'll have my internship, so I won't be at the game, never mind broadcasting it. Depending on how they do, they might not host in the next round, were they to make it. So this could be the last time I go to Merkert for a college basketball game while I'm a Stonehill student. College basketball is one of my favorite things ever, and I wish that there were many, many other people at Stonehill who shared this sentiment and went to as many games as possible. I wish we had a great atmosphere at games, even if we're a small, Division II school. But between broadcasting basketball and intramural basketball, those might be the only extracurriculars that I've done for all four years. And tomorrow, they're both gone. Which is weird, but I know that I can look back on those four years, on this post, and remember that I'm incredibly happy to have done those things.