Every time I watch women basketball...a smile fills my face...pleasant thoughts and memories will flood my mind for the first minute or so before I can focus on the actual game...
When I was in college...my house mate and I were sports celebrities...both of us were in the football team (sorry to the folks not clued in here...not gridiron...but soccer...we call it football down our way...)...and I was the college swimming captain while he was the star of the basketball team....
We shared our football passionately...partly because my basketball skill remained at the 12 year old level and he couldn't save his own life in a pool...nevertheless...we were the best of friends ever since our first football practice...I was the goal keeper and he was the striker...and he just couldn't get a ball past me...my water polo skills came in handy...but when our roles were reversed...he...let's just say...didn't do as well...I made fun of his basketball skill, or the lack of...and he got in my face...we squared up...but the coach wasn't having any of that...we were forced to shake hands and to practice on our own...after that...we were like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid...
Now...my mate was a good looking guy and the ladies swamped around him...I didn't do too badly myself...but being an Asian in a 'blond' town...my fans were far fewer by a long stretch...
However...being best mate with a popular guy has its perks...many women who had no interest in me would still be nice to me...they fished for information on his latest dates and things he liked and so on...and I got 'dates' with the hottest women...though we're just sharing information....having them around did my street cred. a world of good...other women...especially those who already have slight interest in me looked on in awe as I moved around with the "in" crowd....
There is something about women and a lot of them seem to be attracted to men who are with other beautiful women...and with being around gorgeous women interested in my mate, I suddenly became quite popular with the ladies...
I was a double agent of course...feeding them what he wanted me to feed them with...and reported back to him with what I thought of each woman...and while I did fairly well seeking out my own dates; the easiest option was to rely on the willing ladies...since I was the man with the information, the ladies who wanted a piece of my mate had to somehow find a girlfriend who would go out with me... and so the opportunity for double dating increased tremendously...this double act did a roaring business for a long while...
On more than a few occasions, he and I would party together...and those ladies who were so inclined even jumped between our beds...many a morning, I'd wake up with his date and he with mine. According to folk lore that got back to us later, the ladies regarded us to be so different in bed that the double experience in one date was well worth a try out. Come to think of it now, we never ever did a foursome (or even a threesome...)...we'd just hid in our own room....and somewhere in the night, the ladies would swap after we had all gathered in the kitchen for a half-time hydration run.
Now, getting to the main event, let me first explain a little about Sarah G...this girl was the brains in our year...she came into college with a full scholarship...and she did 4 majors...aced all at the end...but being the typical studious type...she was not very coordinated in sports...she swam, rode a mountain bike and practiced yoga...and she was fit...but give her any ball game and she will fumble...
Don't get me wrong though...she's no square and was fairly pretty...a red head with long flowing hair...a smile that will melt hearts and a petite body bursting with energy...she was warm and friendly to almost everyone she met. She was girly but not overly so...I couldn't do justice using words to describe her...but you get the picture...
I'm bias, you understand...I was quite fond of her...though it didn't start out that way...
See, I was also in the college debate team too...and Jolene...our chair-person decided one day that a brainy addition would help our team and Sarah was duly invited...I really wasn't impressed at first...She was known to be sociable but never really was the type to be passionate about any cause. What this means, was that I wasn't sure she would be able to argue any point with enough conviction to help us win.
However, on her first day with us, she initially sat through our discussions and then ask for permission to express her views on what she had observed...on hearing her go through, logically and in detail, what she thought should be the way we prepared ourselves...I was hooked.....this girl, who was demure and soft-spoken normally...would assert with such authority when making her points...wow...
We became friends but were never very close...she didn't hide the fact that she detested jocks...especially those who got scholarships just for playing sports...she believed it deprived other more deserving students from attending college...but she tolerated me...a jock with a little gray matter who didn't get in with a sport's scholarship...still, my damnation was that I hung out with jocks most of the time....
I hinted to her on a few occasions that we should go out but perhaps my hinting skills needed a lot of work, she never even had to turn me down...She was too smart to be suckered by simple lines...she didn't drink much so catching her while she was buzzed was simply out of the question...and in any case, I dared not jeopardize our blossoming friendship by pushing the issue...While I was still dating up a storm with other women, I was hurting inside for not being able to ask out the one girl my heart belonged to. Something had to give or I might have gone bonkers!
Then it happened...I broke my own heart!!
I invited her to my mate's basketball game because I always had court-side seats and that somewhat qualified as a date...she wasn't too interested at first but then I convinced her that she needed a break from her books....besides, she should see how hard athletes had to work even though they came in to college with scholarships...Without first-hand experience, she would not be able to support her anti-jock viewpoint effectively...She reluctantly agreed to endure the event.
However, when the game started, she got into the swing of things...and then...she saw him glide around the court, his short blond hair cutting through the air and was smitten at once...introductions were demanded and his full history had to be laid out...
I knew he wouldn't be interested...not for long anyway...he liked his women to be top heavy and as far as can be helped, not too bright...though I never doubted for one second that he would have a go at her just because he could...a plan was needed to save my dream girl...
I gave her the usual brief...and also commented that he liked his girls to be at least good with a basketball...with her intelligence...she should have spotted the lie immediately...but a woman with her heart-a-flutter operates with a mental capacity of a one year old...
She frowned at the basketball part...and then came up with a plan...she asked me to help her get good at it...I started to frown too...it's like the blind leading the blind....but I smiled...internally at least...when she said we should meet every morning before class at the gym and we can play some one on ones...surely basketball can't be that hard...I was inclined to agree...
We started the very next morning...7.30 am...I'm not at all good trying to be a morning person...but she looked so cute in her leotard and sports bra...I had to go through with it...we didn't play anything for the first few mornings...we simply practiced bouncing the ball...she kinda got that by the second morning...another 2 mornings before she could bounce the ball and run at the same time (yes, I know technically, it's called dribbling, but if you saw how she did it, you'd call it 'bounce the ball and run' too...)...after that, we moved on to passing...2 mornings to get this sorted....you have to understand that if a person tries to dodge a ball being passed to her, passing can be rather challenging...then we moved onward to shooting...alrighty, this took a lot longer...4 more days before she hit the hoop fairly consistently...of course, we also had to take up much time revising previous lessons.
After each practice...we would go for breakfast and we would chat about everything under the sun...I was more enamoured as the days passed...this girl was smart, funny and genuine..I'm sure she saw in my eyes that I had feelings for her...but she must have been so focused on the mission of impressing my mate that she didn't even decipher the message...she and I got friendlier too...because of our constant meetings...and on the ball court no less...we were physically closer...touching was part of our thing now...
She asked me once in a while about my love life...and since I was with her every morning, I hadn't dated at all...there was no way I could get up so early after a date...I would always shrug...but she would name drop...asking me about women I used to see...I was overjoyed that she would pay any attention to my life at all...nevertheless, conversations usually turned quickly to either the debate team's projects or my mate...
