Mason vs. UMass....

I might have mentioned this in one of my previous posts, but I also work for the events department under athletics here at Mason.  I'm pretty sure I did since I talked about homecoming. But anyway, today I had a LONGGG shift. I worked both women's and men's game today, which I was fine with the double shift the day I signed up for today about 3 weeks ago.   But then today I woke up hating myself for signing up for a 9 hour shift.  I was basically standing up doing nothing all day.  With this job, I don't really do much.  Compared to my last job at dominos I feel like I get paid to do nothing. Which....I don't mind. I get paid a dollar more lol work smarter not harder I guess.  The fun part about today though, happened during the very last second of the Men's game.  We ended up winning at the very last second due to poor transition defense by UMass. One of our players made the winning layup during overtime.  It was pretty cool to be a part of that excitement.  But I'm not going to lie, at point I was cheering for UMass in my head but ONLY because I was ready to go home and get the game over with.  I was there for 9.5 hours.......I was tired.

DCIAA Basketball Championships

This past Wednesday the DCIAA held their annual high school  basketball championships for both
 boys and girls at Howard University.  The girls played first at 6pm with the boys playing at 8pm.  For the girls, it was Dunbar vs. Anacostia with Anacostia taking home the trophy.  Something special happened during the game that I never thought I would ever see in person at a high school game.  I got to witness, for the first time, a high school player score 50 points!! Do you know how hard that is to accomplish on any level? It takes so much energy to score that many points.  What made it really special was that it happened during the girls game. Women's basketball often doesn't get the respect it deserves, and it was nice to see them show the crowd that girls basketball is just as good as the boys.  After the game, she received $1000 for being player of the game and she also won a couple of seasonal awards. Anacostia beat Dunbar in a blowout, that didn't matter as everyone in the audience was still having a good time.

For the boys, it was Wilson vs. Roosevelt with Wilson winning the title. I didn't stay for the whole game, but Wilson ended up beating Roosevelt by 12 points.  If you want to go check out some highlights or pictures from the games, you can look at the DCIAA instagram page @DCIAA.

High School Semi Finals Weekend

For the past 2 weeks, the DCIAA has been dealing with middle school and high school basketball playoffs and championships.  Last weekend the middle school championships were held at Howard University for girls and boys.  This weekend the DCIAA was holding the semifinals round for girls and boys at Howard, and the championships for both will be held at Howard as well on Wednesday.  As an intern for the DCIAA, we are required to attend at least one field event of our choice a week, and this week I chose to attend the semifinals games at Howard today.  I had fun watching the games.  There were 4 games today: 12, 2,4, and 6.  I didn't get to Howard until the 2pm game, and I left after the first quarter for the next game because the weather was getting worse.  The highlight of my time there wasn't actually watching the games. It was the free food.  Staff members got their food caterer.  I had a mac n cheese egg roll, pasta salad and fried shrimp that had this sweet and sour sauce on it.  The shrimp was so good. I need to find out what sauce was on the shrimp.

Homecoming Game

In addition to me interning in DC, I also work for the events staff for Mason Athletics.  This past weekend I worked the homecoming game, but the funny thing is...I didn't know it was homecoming. I don't know if that's my fault or bad marketing by the athletic department and the school as a whole to promote that it's homecoming week. I didn't realize I was working the homecoming game until close to halftime when I noticed they were talking about George Mason alumni.  I was wondering why the PA announcer kept talking about Mason Alumni, and that's when I figured out that it was homecoming. When you work back hallway you aren't able to watch the game. That's why I didn't know right away that it was homecoming. During halftime there was a line outside the bathroom, so that was another way I figured out it was homecoming. 





Before the game, one of our workers got stuck in the old elevator that we use to transport items from the bottom floor to the concourse.  It was kind of a scary moment because she was in there for at least 10 minutes.  Thankfully she got out.  Since that incident, I don't trust that elevator. For the game on Wednesday, I had to take the ice bucket upstairs using that elevator, but I was concerned that I might get stuck this time too. So, I pushed the ice bucket into the elevator, pressed "2", walked out the elevator and watched the elevator doors close, and walked up the stairs to meet the ice bucket in the elevator. If the elevator got stuck again, at least it wasn't going to have me in there.

Mckinley Tech v. Jefferson

As an intern for DCIAA, I'm required to attend 2-3 small field events and 1-2 big events such as championships a month, and complete 8-10 office hours per week. I usually complete my office hours on wednesdays and fridays to meet the minimum requirement of 8 hours.  However, this week my intern coordinator wanted me and the six other interns to spend our office hours for the week with an athletic trainer from one of the dc public schools.  Today I shadowed the athletic trainer at Wilson high school: Jamila Watson.  I didn't get a chance to do anything hands on because I'm not certified in anything, but I did get to watch her wrap a student’s foot while we were in the clinic. It was pretty interesting. I also watched the mckinley tech v. jefferson middle school basketball game with her. I got to see what she has to do before games to make sure coaches have their player's inhalers and epi pens.  We had to check the dates to see if they hadn't expired.  In addition, we had to check and see if the players who were playing had a stamp on their physical form.  Having a stamp means you are certified to play.  Being an athletic trainer is not something I want to do, but while I was in high school I thought about going into sports medicine.  I do have a slight interest in the sports medical field, but not enough for me to want to do more than just shadow someone.  I had a nice time with the Athletic trainer. 

And The Winner Is.....

The Philadelphia Eagles finally won a ring...I was rooting for the Patriots to win the superbowl up until Brady fumbled the ball.  Once the Eagles recovered the fumbled, it was at that point that I recognized the Patriots lost the game. Even though the Brady would get the ball back with a little less than a minute left on the clock (enough time for him to throw a touchdown), I just knew the Patriots weren't going to score again because Brady had kind of been off-target all game.  He had over 500 passing yards, but if you watched the game, you could see that Brady's arm just wasn't all that accurate. After the fumble, I effectively switched sides, and I was rooting for the Eagles to win.  We're division rivals, but I'm kind of glad that Brady lost again. He's 5-3 in the superbowl, and all three losses were against NFC East teams. I read a statistics that said the NFC East is the only division where all 4 teams have won a championship. That's pretty impressive.....Overall, the game was pretty good and hopefully the giants make the playoffs next year.  If they do, I hope obj and sterling shepard don't take a picture on a boat with timbs.

I met a famous person today....

This semester I have an internship with the DCIAA, which is the governing body of sports for DCPS.  I started the internship at the end of October, but I was only going into the office only on Fridays.  This semester I've been able to be more involved in some of the events and office work, and today was a big day for DCIAA. They held their annual Women in Sports conference at The Line hotel. 4 student athletes (girls)  from about 6 DC public high schools were invited to attend the event and get a chance to talk to some very important woman in DC sports. The panel consisted of 5 important woman, but the main star of the event was Elena Delle Donne! Seeing the excitement on some of the students faces as they were taking pictures with her was cool to see. I don't watch the WNBA much (probably only once a year during finals round). Elena Delle Don is one of the few players in the league that I know. I'm glad I got the chance to meet her today.  She spoke to me twice on two different occasions:) I didn't get a picture with her because for some reason I forgot to ask.....BUT I got her autograph:)

Superbowl weekend

So, for some fans this weekend is a pretty special weekend because their favorite football team is playing in the biggest event in football: THE SUPERBOWL.  I'm not happy though....I don't like either of these teams. Well, I can't really say I'm not happy because this year I haven't been that interested in football.  My favorite team is the Giants, and they were either the second or third worst team in the league, which is probably why my interest in football was no where to be found this season.  Once Odell Beckham Jr's season ended due to injury, I stopped watching the games. I wanted the Vikings to beat the Eagles so that way it would have been easier for me to chose which team I wanted to win the Superbowl. Vikings vs. Patriots I would have chosen the Vikings.  I hate the Patriots just like everyone else, and the Eagles are a division rival.  If the Eagles win, then fans in the NFC east can't make jokes about Philadelphia having no rings.  I have a few days to figure out who I'll be rooting for on Sunday.  Most likely I'll reluctantly pick the Patriots. Boooooooo!  But I want the ringless eagle jokes to survive.