Last January, around Martin Luther King Day my family got together to celebrate my grandma’s 85th birthday. It was not too long after Mel Thomas tore her ACL. Isn’t pathetic that I remember my own life’s events through the dates of sporting events? She is an active member of her church so we thought that it would be appropriate to have her family surprise her during a service. It went really well, she was surprised when the pastor announced that she had special guests to celebrate her birthday with her in the back of the church. What surprised me were the prayer requests.
This took place at the Deep River Congregational Church in Deep River, CT. I’m Catholic and I really am not used to Congregational services, even though they aren’t all that different from Catholic ones. One thing that was different was a part of the mass where people could say who they were keeping in their prayers. The first person wanted the congregation to keep a person who was undergoing surgery in everyone’s thoughts. Then I think it may have been a prayer for a family who lost a loved one. The pastor then says “any last prayers?” An old man raises his hand and says “You know those lady huskies have been struggling lately so can we say a prayer for them!” [The UConn Women’s Basketball team was undefeated at that point, he was referring to the ACL injuries to Kalana Greene and Mel Thomas] Truthfully I wasn’t shocked at all by that. Many other people were. It’s that passion for the women’s team that makes me love reporting on them. This wasn’t the last time we heard about the basketball team during that mass. The Pastor briefly mentioned the team when he tied in their troubles with life lessons.
I loved that mass because it gave me something to talk about. I remember at a media practice telling Geno that a church in Deep River said a prayer for his team right before the Notre Dame game. I don’t remember exactly what I said but it had something to do with negating the spiritual effect of playing Notre Dame. I also told Renee Montgomery about it and she was happy to hear that and thought that it was cool. I also told Mel Thomas about it. Even though the man didn’t mention her by name it was pretty obvious that he was referring to her. UConn’s only struggles to that point were ACL tears to Kalana Greene and Mel Thomas. Considering this was only days after Thomas’s injuries I was pretty sure he was referring to her. Mel gave me this “Awwweee” response to that. It was pretty clear that she appreciated the thoughts.
Many of the players on the women’s basketball team aren’t shy about their faith in god and, to be honest, as someone who does attend church it’s really nice to know. Many of my own friends at college don’t understand why I go to church. I happen to believe it makes me a better person.
As a side note Mel Thomas did the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in the middle of a basketball game. Cute is not a word that is normally in my vocabulary. But I can make exceptions. Against West Virginia last year there was a bad foul called against her. Rather than argue the call Mel just smiled and went “Awe.” The first thing that came to my mind was, “that was cute.” I’d never ever ever ever ever ever thought about something cute in the middle of a sporting event before.
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