The Lady Aggies and History

I have to pick up my pen to write about this team. I am running on fumes after a wild night of not being able to sleep thinking about this team making history.

They won 73-49, beating Wake Forest in the first round of the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT). It was the first postseason win in a national tournament for the program, I've been told. The larger schools have their pick of the best players, and can offer those players TV, radio, web support, etc. But its funny how it pans out.

A&T offers a great education and tradition. Now if you are a star do you want to go to a big school and sit the bench, along with a possibility of your replacement being recruited the next year? Some are changing the model. They want to play now! A&T is making a name for itself; it is getting players.

Now, about last night. The game was in a small gym on the campus of Wake Forest. The Wake men were playing on TV later that night in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Hence, most of the interest and attendance would have been in the dorm rooms and bars around the Triad. The majority of the Wake Forest pep band may have been on the road with the men. In any case, they only had a few members in Reynolds Gymnasium that night.

Their crowd was 1/3 of the gym. A&T packed the house. The game was sold out. The Pep band was at full strength and it blew the roof off of the gym. The Wake Forest crowd looked at one another once A&T finished its first song, with that "what's this?" type of expression. The Aggie crowd was loud and cheered the players who made plays and went to the bench for a rest.

It was electric!

It was like yesterday meeting today. A throwback gym, the secret game between Duke & NCCU (NCC at the time, during segregation), the Woolworth store vs. the four A&T freshmen, the status quo vs. the promise of the new thing.

It was not as Smokey Robinson says in the song 'quiet storm': "butterfly caught up in a hurricane", it was the flower coming up through concrete.

The A&T women's basketball team showed the faithful that we must continue to believe. We must continue to provide for those coming after us.

History springs forth!