I was born and raised in the DEEP South, where I was an avid, multi-sport fan and an eager , if not particularly talented, multi-sport participant. I had little-to-zero interest in organized female athletics of any kind. Truth to tell, in my era, Southern girls did not, in fact, sweat...they would merely gently perspire (a word, down there, that contained three syllables - work with me here). Later in life, when circumstances allowed my wife and me to adopt a lifestyle that included dividing time between residences down South and in Connecticut, all of that changed, mainly as a result of one episode: Driving around, and acquainting ourselves with our newly-adopted Connecticut town, we passed by an extensive outdoor sports complex adjacent to a lovely shoreline. A group of about ten very attractive high school aged girls, I surmised probably school teammates, were scrimmaging one another on one of the full-court venues. Over my wife's predictable objections, I pulled over to observe for a bit. What I saw was unlike anything in my prior experience. These girls may indeed have been cute, but the game they were playing was cutthroat. They were hustling fiercely up and down the court, at times fouling the **** out of one another, in short, playing a game of which any group of sixteen or seventeen-year-old guys would be proud. I found out that these girls did, in fact, play for a local high school team and were big fans of, and largely inspired by, the example set by UConn women's basketball. I was hooked, and have never turned back. In more recent years, female athletics have much more fully evolved in my old Southern stomping grounds, a fact of which I heartily approve. Now that men's basketball has become a game played, to my dismay, almost entirely above the rim, the women's game, and the hugely competitive way it is played at the highest levels, is a source of great appeal!
