As some of you may know, I've attended the women's clinic for five straight years, dutifully purchasing $20 worth of what I jokingly call my annual Jeremy Foley raffle ticket donation and politely applaud while other lucky lady Gators scored cool goodies like autographed Gator helmets or sideline passes without a hint of a reward. Hey, I never win anything, so I wasn't surprised!
Not long after purchasing my raffle tickets this year, I happened to notice a face I recongized but hadn't seen in 20 years - a UF student at the time who worked for a summer in my old lab at USF. I was catching up with her, and introducing her to my daughter who she had babysat once when Kaley was only nine months old, when my number was called! Amazingly, I had won *something,* but what? Because I had been busy socializing, I had missed the details but was told when exchanging my email and cell phone number that it was the Gator Walk for the Charleston Southern game. Hmm, anyone can attend the Gator Walk, what could this possibly be? So finally last week I received an email from Amy with the athletic department with those missing details. She would meet me and a guest outside the North EZ entrance before the game and we'd get a primo spot for the players coming off the bus and follow them into the stadium and across the field as they entered the locker room. And she said couldn't promise, but Tim is usually last off the bus and we'd be following directly behind him. Maybe this would be a chance to make my daughter's dream come true to meet the Legend and snap a quick picture with him. We were both excited at the prospect! So we juggled some schedules (despite requesting the day off from work my daughter was scheduled to work until 5PM, gee that wasn't going to work!) and after numerous phone calls and requests we finally had it set so she could leave work at 3:30 to meet me at the stadium. We arrived at our usual Lake Alice parking place and rushed to meet Amy with little time to spare. After a quick introduction, Amy walked us to the corner of University and Lemerand Drive with quite a crowd already assembled. I instantly recognized Alex Sink pressing the flesh and before long Shelly Meyer showed up. Amy was in constant contact with someone on the bus and we knew they were coming before the police escorts made their way. The buses pulled up and I was furiously snapping photos as players started pouring off the bus. I missed a lot but got more than I realized, and was ready to start following the team as soon as Tebow and David Nelson made their way. Best laid plans...although Amy was great about telling both law enforcement and the event staff that yes we were supposed to be there, we had a couple of unfortunate incidents of being delayed enough that as we walked down the line Tebow got further and further ahead of us so there was no opportunity to exchange a word or take that photo. I did get a great one of David Nelson though, and I can't begin to describe the experience of walking a good 10-20 yards behind them as Tebow as the navigated that line. The noise was deafening as people screamed his name as as we got to just outside the stadium cheers of "Heisman! Heisman!". Although my short legs were moving as quickly as possible, by the time we passed the band line and rounded the stadium to go down the steps Tim and David were already half-way across the field. Bummer! I could tell Amy felt really bad that it didn't go exactly as planned and generously offered to meet us for a practice so we could meet Tim and get that picture my daughter so desperately desires. A mid-week trip to Gainesville isn't in the cards for me right now, but my daughter will be getting that set up this week and taking her roommate, so I'll make sure to post those pictures for you guys when I get them. There were so many pictures I didn't want to upload them individually, so I finally got around to registering that FB profile, and have an album set up if anyone wants to take a looks at the pictures I took. I couldn't ID all the players, but tried to put faces with names whenever I could. Now that I have my FB profile set, I'll try to finally get my women's clinic photos as well, just as soon as I get a second. For now, enough playing I have some work to do: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2961&id=100000212757464&ref=nf --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
