AJ Cushman Blog Entry

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This weekend was my final home opener in Memorial Gymnasium. It has been so amazing to get to play in Mem Gym in my years at this school. It has so much history, but it has also been renovated, so it still feels new. I love practicing where we play too; I know that gym inside and out. It just feels like home.

I love the atmosphere because the people that come to see us play are right there on the court with us. Unlike football, or almost any other sport here, we can basically touch our fans. They are right there on the court pushing with us against our opponent to win. You can feel the energy when a game is really close and every point is a battle.

I have been fortunate to have my mom and dad at most, if not all, of our home games too. They drive almost 2.5-3 hours round trip to and from my games and they do it every weekend we are home. They even try to make it to many of the away games. My mom brings her special trail mix for everyone on the team and they all go crazy for it, especially Syd. And you will always see my dad sitting in the top row with his VIRGINIA bandana and his booming voice.

I have also had many of my friends come from different schools around the state come and see my games, which has been really great. But none of that compares to all that my parents have done for me. I really a appreciate them. Love you guys!

With that, I was really upset that we didn’t pull out the George Washington match this weekend. We played well in games three and four, but as Lee always says, “two games don’t make a match.” It taught us that we can’t take any team for granted. You have to show up for every game ready to play, and even if you’re expected to win, you still have to play hard and earn your victory.