Boston College Athletics
BC Weekly Diary With Guy Melamed
November 25, 2002 | Men's Soccer
Nov. 25, 2002
We are the Big East champions!
Reading my last diary and comparing it to this one, I might be accused of plagiarism, but that is not the case. We won the double.
I was contemplating the way I should write this journal entry. My conclusion was that the best way to summarize the week's events would be by writing a book. I reconsidered, though, influenced by the spiral declining shape of my GPA and figured that Stephen King has nothing to be worried about. At least not for now.
It all started early Thursday morning, when we participated in the Big East awards ceremony, with all of the four teams who were playing that weekend for the Big East Championship. One thing that struck us all was the lack of appreciation we received. We had the perception that players on the other teams weren't giving us respect, and they might even have considered our regular season title a fluke. When we went on stage to receive the trophies for the achievement, the only players clapping were ours.
Not one of the other teams' players clapped their hands.
So, going into the semifinals, we had our motivation. Our semifinal game was delayed for almost two hours after St. John's and Connecticut battled into the night. UConn eventually won on penalty kicks. We all knew how amazing it could be playing them in the finals, for a couple of reasons. First, they beat us during the regular season; second, the winner would win the first spot in the region and, therefore, could finish as one of the top-eight seeds in the country entering the NCAA Tournament. But we had to put all that daydreaming aside and beat Georgetown first. It was a battle, but we survived and won the game, 2-0. We were happy with the win, but were anxiously looking forward toward the finals.
No matter how I try to describe the final, I still won't be able to express the emotions, the excitement, the feelings that ran through my mind before, during and after the game. I felt all of our players played their best, and tactically we followed the instructions almost to a "T." We won the game not only because we have good players but mainly because we are a team - and a unified one as well. The amount of screaming, singing and dancing we all did after the final whistle cannot be described. My throat is still hurting, but there are no complaints on my behalf.
And the story doesn't end there. The following day was a big one too. The NCAA announced the seeding and brackets for the tournament. We received the fifth seed, and our only wish is to keep this amazing roll going. We need to be focused, mentally tough and well-prepared for our game on Wednesday against Northeastern and -hopefully - the ones beyond that.
Because we just don't want this to end.
