little known fact

When I was a freshman at BYU, two of the girls in my dorm were players on the BYU women's basketball team. To be freshmen and players -- who got time on the court! -- was a pretty big deal. They were super nice people (and very tall!), and several of us went to support them for their games.

A few of us supported them a lot. For the next several years actually, I went to almost every single home BYU women's basketball game, and some of the away games, with the same group of friends from freshman year. Add to the equation that one of my best friends from back home loved loved loved basketball (and even herself tried out for the BYU team), so basically a women's basketball game was 100% her idea of a good time and I was at women's basketball games a lot!

It was a ball (haha). We always sat in the same exact seats in BYU's Marriott Center, right underneath one of the hoops. We cheered super loud. We wore matching t-shirts. We learned about all the players. I -- who never played basketball on account of my being 5-foot-2-inches -- learned all the referee signs and signals and rules. It was a good time. I have some great memories of that group of friends. My best friend from back home even got me a t-shirt signed by four of my favorite players for my birthday one year.

Anyway, it's been seven (gah!) years now since I've graduated, and I got to relive some of those BYU basketball memories last night. See, one of the star players on the BYU basketball team was drafted into the WNBA when she graduated in 2003, and she's still playing today and is, in fact, the only BYU alumnae playing in the WNBA. Her team, the Chicago Sky, is playing the Seattle Storm this weekend so the Seattle Chapter of the BYU Alumni Association asked her to do a fireside (complete with free ice cream afterwards) on being a professional Mormon athlete, missionary experiences she has had, how she got to where she is, favorite scriptures, etc.

Her name is Erin Thorn. She was a point guard, #10, and I'll never forget how talented she was! All the memories came back last night. It was awesome to hear her talk about her experiences. After BYU she played internationally for awhile, and now she is living her dream playing for the WNBA. I remember reading a couple years ago that she was drafted and thought that was so cool. She played for the New York Liberty at the time. I feel privileged to have been able to hear from her and visit with her for a little bit yesterday.

(She said she's only 5-foot-10-inches tall! So I don't look that shrimpy.)

She talked about how she got to meet Dean Cain (Superman! I had a poster of him in my room when I was 14!!) in an airport in Spain. She got to share a Book of Mormon with some of her teammates in Greece. She talked religion with an equipment manager in New York. She has always thought of the admonition to "let your light so shine," and has recognized that basketball was a talent of hers that has afforded her the opportunity to serve an unconventional "mission," and teach people about the Church in an different way.

The best part was that afterwards, when she was mingling with everyone who came, she said there were two people in the audience she recognized -- another gal and me! She knew she knew us from somewhere! When I told her that I was friends with those girls from the dorms and that I saw a lot of her games, she said, "ahh! that's it!" (The other gal was a friend of a friend from high school.)

She remembered! How cool is that! I feel like I've brushed shoulders once more with someone famous -- who recognized me!

So there you have it, a funny little known fact about me. I can't play basketball worth a can of beans, but I loved watching those girls play up and down the court for all those years I was at BYU. Good times.