Celebrating 25 Years of Fanaticism: High School

Chapter 2: High School (1992-1996)

Part I: Freshman Year

 In the spring of 1992 I watched, really watched, my first ever March Madness (the Men's College Basketball Tournament).  I was on Spring Break and down at my Grandparents in Florida.  I watched UNC lose to Ohio State in the Sweet Sixteen, but it was later that weekend that I saw what turned out to be the best game ever played (and between two teams I would end up hating with a passion).  The University of Kentucky and Duke University played a  back and forth, high intensity, overtime game that ended with one of the most, if not the most, memorable moments in college basketball history.  Even though Duke went on to win their second consecutive championship, this was all I ever needed to see to realize that the NCAA Tournament was the greatest sports spectacle.  Three weeks of single elimination basketball with school pride at stake.  I just hoped UNC would fare better next season.

That summer the Oakland Athletics regained their winning ways.  My two favorite players, Mark McGwire and Dennis Eckersley had excellent seasons with 'The Eck' winning the American League Cy Young and MVP awards which was an unbelievably rare feat for a pitcher, much less a relief pitcher.  As the playoffs started I had high hopes for a 4th World Series appearance in 5 years, but it wasn't meant to be.  The series against the eventual champion Toronto Blue Jays was highlighted (for Jays fans at least) by a 9th inning game tying home run by Roberto Alomar off of Eckersley.  I still remember being crushed as I was watching the game in my living room.  Although the A's won Game 5, they lost the next game and their season ended.  It dampened my start to high school, but I knew good things were ahead.

At George Mason High School in Falls Church, VA students had to really love the building that they lived in for 9 months per each year.  The school housed both middle and high school students which meant 7 of your first 18 years of life were going to be under one roof.  Each class held less that 100 students so by the time you finished your 7 year term, everyone knew everything about you.  No secrets were safe between students or between teachers.  If you liked your teacher they would feel more like an Aunt or Uncle, but if you didn't get along with a teacher, you couldn't escape them and very possibly they would teach you two different years.

Around 9th grade I had already expected to be moving away from Falls Church.  Both my parents worked in Reston (Virginia) and we had put our house on the market for hopes of a sale and move out there.  I knew nothing about Reston, but to a 13 year old who lived a rather sheltered life inside the Beltway of D.C. I knew that a move there would be a disaster.  I had a good thing going in Falls Church and Reston felt like California to me.

We hadn't sold the house by the time the school year started so back to Mason for year number 4.  I was playing JV soccer that fall and making new friends.  In my English class I met a pair of awkward guys, Zack and Justin, who were constantly wearing 'Beavis and Butthead' t-shirts and always sat in the back row.  They were not athletically gifted as far as I could tell, but they were funny and I got along with them well.  A new student moved to town with bright curly red hair named Trevor and as soon as I saw him wear an Oakland A's hat, we hit it off.  Coming from California, he loved sports and played sports (basketball being his favorite), but what stood out about him was his flair for individuality and his shear, unadulterated genius.  I had never to this point, nor have I since met a person who was made being smart look so easy, but was genuinely nice and was able to keep us 'normal' students involved in conversation without losing us with too many words and ideas we couldn't fathom.  The last two of our eventual group of six were two guys I had known for years, but never been really close to.  Jody and Isaac had grown up with me in Falls Church and gone to school with me since Kindergarten, but because they lived so close to the Elementary School, they didn't do Day Care so I never built an out of school friendship with them.  Jody was a huge sports fan like me, but he liked the Yankees who I knew were big rivals of the Orioles growing up so I knew I didn't like them.  Luckily for me the Yankees were horrible during the late 80's and early 90's and with the A's being so dominant in recent time, I always won the argument of whose team was better with Jody.  He also played baseball and starting in 1993 would be a teammate of mine at least once a season in baseball for 15 of the next 19 years to date.  Isaac who was previously unnamed, but mentioned, as the reason I became a Capitals and Pistons fan rounded out the motley crew.  He lived right next to Jody so it was easy to hang out with both of them at the same time.

As the NFL season approached, I had high hopes seeing as the Redskins were the defending Super Bowl Champions.  It was only a matter of time until they won another Super Bowl and I thought this year was as good as any.  A friend of mine was a huge Cowboys fan and I had been boasting on how they were so bad for years and how the Redskins were so good.  Oops.  That year the Redskins regressed, and although they still made the playoffs and won a playoff game, this season belong to my bitter rivals.  The Cowboys won the Super Bowl, their first since 1978 (right before I was born).

I did get to go to my first ever NHL game as my Dad took me to see the Capitals take on the San Jose Sharks.  He was a good sport, but hockey wasn't for him.  I was sold that hockey was fantastic and what little I had seen on television paled in comparison to what it was like in person.  As for being a fan of the Capitals, the playoffs held the same fate for them again as they were ousted in the first round.  This time they lost 3 consecutive overtime games (the most heartbreaking way to lose in playoff hockey) and the fourth loss ended in massive controversy.  Dale Hunter, the teams' Captain blew his top facing his season ending and was suspended for 21 games following the incident.  

All of a sudden the teams that my favorite teams hated and I would hate forever the most were dominating the sports landscape.  Duke won in 1991 and 1992, The Pittsburgh Penguins had done the same.  The Cowboys won and would win the next year and the Chicago Bulls who had ended the Pistons string of dominance were about to win their 2nd of 3 consecutive championships.  What the hell was going on here???  Life sucked.  I took losses by my teams and victories by my enemies personally. 

To make matters worse, my JV basketball season that winter was to be my last basketball season of my life.  My talents had peaked as had my height for the most part.  I enjoyed the camaraderie with my teammates, but I knew it was time to move on and that saddened me.  I hated to fail and I hated to not be able to play as well as I once could.  I had never put the time and effort into basketball as I did with baseball and it now started to show.  Being left handed had been an advantage when opponents couldn't figure it out, but now being forced to go right exposed my ultimate weakness (well that and I had the vertical of a hippo).

Down in Chapel Hill, NC, though, another quality season was being played by the Tar Heels Men's Basketball team.  I was starting to be able to watch more games as I could stay up later at night, but for the most part I saw highlights on ESPN or read about them in the newspaper.  I had befriended a new female who happened to be a huge Kentucky fan.  Erin and I talked so much trash to each other over the next four years about who had the better school and better coach.  She loved herself some Rick Pitino who was a young, brash, smooth looking coach, while Dean Smith who coached UNC had started there in 1961 as their head coach when Pitino was just 9 years old!  Every win or loss during the season became do or die between us.  We didn't grasp the fact that both teams were really good and guaranteed to make the NCAA Tournament and that made it even more fun.

Peer pressure wasn't the only factor in making that season stressful.  My English teacher was a die hard University of Virginia fan and he made sure to needle me with every UNC loss.  I didn't like English class much.  Luckily my Biology teacher was a UNC fan and it became very easy to get him sidetracked about talking UNC sports and forget about class.  Trevor was a UCLA fan, a couple of guys on the JV basketball team were Florida St. fans and one was a U. of Michigan fan (the Fab 5 were so cool).  The one thing we all agreed on was that we hated Duke, with a passion.

The 1993 NCAA Tournament started and everybody's favorite team made it as did Duke.  There was so much pressure that tournament and it was all still relatively new to me.  I picked out my favorite UNC outfit: hat, shirt and even shorts and did a little dance in the privacy of my bedroom before the 1st game for the Tar Heels.  They won easily.  The next game I did the same thing.  The won by 45.  The first weekend was over and the field had been cut from 64 to 16 teams.  Along with UNC, Kentucky, UVA, Florida St. and Michigan advanced.  UCLA had lost to Michigan and thankfully for everyone, Duke had been upset by Jason Kidd and the Cal Bears (phew!).  The pressure was ratcheted up a notch.  We had all week at school to talk about who was going to win.  It was a class wide conversation because we involved the teachers.  UNC survived their next game, as did Kentucky, Michigan and Florida St., but UVA lost (take that Mr. Hoover!).  With only 8 teams left to win the Championship, 3 of the teams had fans that I couldn't have be happy.  UNC had to go to overtime, but squeaked by Cincinnati to head to the Final 4.  Kentucky beat Florida St. and Michigan upended Temple.  Erin and I were at each others throats that following week.  This was going to set the tone in our friendship for the rest of high school (or the rest of our lives as we probably saw it at the time).  There was nothing more important going on in our lives.

The weekend of the Final Four was the start of Spring Break and my family headed back down to Florida to visit my grandparents.  I took my trusted UNC outfit with me and as the game was about to start I locked my bedroom door and did a super sized version of my dance.  Then I heard "Dinner!" and I was forced to sit through a painful 20 minutes of mindless chit chat over spaghetti.  At this point my family still could care less about UNC and they told me no game until after dinner.  I was beside myself.  I got finished, helped with the dishes as fast as possible and planted myself in front of the television.  The Tar Heels were playing Kansas who had beat them in this same round two years ago.  Dean Smiths' ex-assistant coach, Roy Williams led the Jayhawks, but unlike 1991, the Heels won this game and North Carolina was heading to their 1st Championship Game since 1982!  In the other game Kentucky played Michigan and I was torn.  I hated Kentucky, but it would have been so much fun to beat them.  But what if Kentucky beat UNC?? I couldn't have that.  But Michigan was the better team, they had the Fab 5, would I want UNC to play them?  There's no way UNC could win that game.  Michigan won, Kentucky was done.  I smiled, but knew the Michigan game would be tough.

The game was late Monday night.  My dad stayed up to watch with me and my sister who was 9 at the time tried, and failed, as well.  It was close throughout, I couldn't sit still.  I was running around the living room like a madman.  Mom and my grandparents were fast asleep and I knew I had to keep the noise level down.  It was impossible to do so.  With :19 left UNC had a two point lead and missed a free throw when another indelible moment happened.  Chris Webber, the star of stars, for the Michigan team, grabbed the rebound and apparently traveled.  I screamed to no avail, Michigan kept possession and I knew they were going to score.  He dribbled to the corner in front of his bench and called for a timeout.  I knew, the announcers knew, but he didn't know that they didn't have any timeouts to call.  I screamed 'Technical Foul! Technical Foul! UNC is going to win' and sprinted around the house like I had caught on fire.  UNC made their free throws and won the National Championship!  Unfortunately for me I had a full week of Spring Break left in Florida before I could get back and gloat.  By the time I got back to school life had moved on.  I still bragged, but it didn't have the same oomph as it would have it had been the following day.  Next year when UNC won again, I thought, I'd be home to laugh at everyone...I couldn't wait.