For the Love of Sports

My name is Kirsten, and I'm just your average girl who fell in love with a guy who fell in love with sports.  (Fortunately, it didn't take him too long to fall for me too.)  But first, let's talk about life before I met him.

 I grew up watching the games (mostly baseball and football) with my dad and grandpas on Sunday afternoons or at night before bed.  I grew up going to Phillies games and signing the national anthem at the Trenton Thunder stadium.  I even had season tickets for a few years with my Dad and some friends for the Philadelphia Wings, our indoor Lacrosse team.  I have always been around sports, and I even tried playing a few of them (though not very successfully).

 But even though I never excelled in actually playing sports, I have always enjoyed watching them.  Our Wings tickets were right behind the  penalty box and right down the row from the teams' most enthusiastic fan: "Chopper."  My best friend and I would get so into the action - especially being up that close to the field.  There's something about feeling like you're a part of something bigger than yourself... something about being on a team and feeling all of the emotions that go along with winning and losing.  So this is where I stood on sports.  They were fun to watch, and while I knew about my favorite teams and players, my sports knowledge was pretty limited.  I didn't know a whole lot, and I didn't really have a reason to... until my junior year of high school, that is.


Enter Ronnie, a funny, outgoing, and sweet guy who became a very good friend.  Ronnie and I started dating toward the end of our junior year.  He was on the lacrosse team, and conveniently for me, so were the boyfriends of my two best friends.  We called ourselves "The Girlfriends Club," went to all the games, and supported our guys with cute homemade t-shirts that sported their names and numbers.  Again, I loved the feeling of camaraderie and I loved cheering for Ronnie.  My friends and I would even travel to their furthest away games just so we could be there to watch them play.  Though never a fan of sweaty hugs (still not), I loved being able to be there when he came off the field after a hard-fought game, and I loved knowing that when he looked up into the stands, he was looking for me... his biggest fan.

Mine and Ronnie's relationship continued on into college, and every summer we would go down to Wildwood for the week with his family.  One summer, before leaving for vacation, we decided to make a trip to Barnes and Noble and pick out some books to read for fun.  We inevitably ended up in the sports section where Ronnie had zeroed in on some sports and team history books.  Since he and his buddy had started a sports blog, he was always looking to gain more sports knowledge and get ideas for new blog posts.  Ronnie came across a book called "She's Got Game: The Woman's Guide to Loving Sports (or just how to fake it!)" by Melissa Malamut.  He casually made note of it, but I was more interested.  You see, since the whole sports blog thing began, I had been hearing a lot about sports.  Sports radio was often playing in the car when we went somewhere, and that often sparked some kind of spiel about what he had heard on ESPN that day.  Sometimes he would even quiz me about current events in sports.  Admittedly, I wasn't very good, nor was I very interested in what he was saying.  So I saw this book as an opportunity-  an opportunity to be able to communicate with my boyfriend in one of his favorite love languages: sports.

That week at the beach, I devoured the first two chapters on baseball and football.  I learned all about the rules, the teams, the history, and important players and events.  I got pretty excited about all of this new knowledge and had a fun time telling Ronnie about everything I was learning.  I even got to teach him a thing or two!  Once I started to learn more about the sports, I began to enjoy watching them more.  And I even began to enjoy talking about them with Ronnie.

Since that summer, I have forgotten some of the details.  I don't always remember all the terms and abbreviations, and I still ask a lot of questions.  However, I have developed a greater appreciation for sports as a whole.  I have broadened my sports knowledge to teams and players outside of my own city, and I even enjoy keeping up on current events.  In fact, sometimes I try to beat Ronnie to finding out about them so that I can be the one who tells him what's going on.  I have also been a great "assistant" fantasy football owner for the last few years.  Last year, Ronnie was the fantasy  football champion in his league, and I was very proud.  I feel very accomplished with my newfound appreciation for and knowledge of sports, but what's even more important to me is that I have found a way to relate better to the person I love most.  When he wants to talk sports, we can actually have an intelligent conversation about what's going on.  He's definitely still the teacher, but I like to think I'm a pretty good student.  He once told  my best friend that one of the greatest gifts I ever gave him was learning about and sharing his interest in sports.

Ronnie and I are engaged now, and will be getting married this summer.  One of our favorite things to do together is order in, cuddle up, and watch a game.  Would I have ever thought that this would be the case five years ago when we became such good friends?  No, but what can I say?  I fell in love with a guy who fell in love with sports.  And in the end, I fell in love with them too.


Kirsten is a graduate of Cedarville University and is finally done student teaching. She loves sports especially her Phillies. You can follow her on twitter @Kirlynn01.