A couple of thoughts

Before I go to bed on a night I am up way too late again.
I've been feeling old lately as my birthday has passed, but now I feel VERY old. Just wrote a nice thing about the seniors on the soccer team (men) and realized that the tournament run was four years ago.
Wow.
I'll never forget that run. I'm still livid about the goal Central had taken away at FDU, not because it was against Central but because the referees on the field were overruled days after the fact. I still say that policy could end sports as we know them, but thankfully it hasn't been used too much since.
But I'll never forget the run it started, either. An, ahem, angry, Central team went on to win for six straight weeks, including two straight wins over nationally-ranked teams in the NCAA Tournament.
I remember Harvard being stunning in person. I'd seen it many times (I went to school in Boston) but never had been inside the place. The media availability was in a building adjacent to the football stadium, and we walked along a balcony outside and took in the view.
I remember the final seconds of the Harvard game. Central had built the lead, but Harvard scored on a PK then I think hit a post in the final seconds. It was extremely dramatic.
From there they went to Tulsa, ranked ninth in the country. I was at Central for a hoops game, and watched the end of the soccer game from Tom's office and did some interviews by phone. Leaving the building very late that night, I could hear students celebrating a soccer score, something I never thought I'd hear.
I made the trek to UMass for the Sweet 16 game. I've been colder just once in my life, at a Thanksgiving football game where it rained so hard I was shaking. But that game was memorable. The background of the field was such that it seemed small, and the stands were right on top of the field. A great atmosphere, and more than 1,000 were on hand. Not bad for soccer in New England in December.
When I say the field was icy, I mean it literally. I couldn't get any traction with my tires, and experienced as close as I ever will to skating whenever I ventured from the press table.
I remember Central trying to change shoes, eventually borrowing sneakers from the crowd during an hour-plus delay after the referee, the only person with any sense it seemed, stopped the game, only to be overruled by the NCAA.
Now make no mistake, I'm not making excuses for the Blue Devils. UMass, at least on that day, was a far better team and would have won on ice, grass, turf or blacktop. But what I remember most about that day is that Central's run shouldn't have ended like that. The NCAA Tournament was reduced to a circus and it made for a disappointing, disjointed end to the run. UMass deserved to win, but the teams, the fans and the sport of college soccer deserved better.
I wrote something to that effect, ticking off the NCAA weeks after I'd told the NEC how blatantly wrong they were. Go me!
Maybe in March I'll get to cover another NCAA Tournament. And the best part about basketball? An ice storm won't play havoc with the game.
Football thoughts at some point Tuesday, injury report Wednesday. Taking your emails at mstraubblog@hotmail.com.
As the soccer boys say, all the best to ya laddies.