Last night I was more than normally nervous during Jay's basketball game. First of all, this one never entered my comfort zone, which is thirty points. we lead the entire game, but never more than 12 pts and usually the margin was only eight. That is not my kind of game. I like them to be so dull that I can ignore the play and concentrate on talking to my friends and doing my needlepoint. Last night I had to watch the whole game. It was sloppy and hard fought; several times it looked like the players wanted to fight.
Worse than the close score was the fact that the stands were packed with family, friends and photographers, all hoping to be on hand when Jay won his 500th career win. Even our daughter Katie, who stopped going to games the second she was old enough to stay home alone, came to this one. One section of stands was full of Jay's oldest friends; the gang from high school and even the distant, misty days of St. Thomas the Apostle grade school. They even brought a poster.
Another friend had ordered a cake, which was waiting at the Green Mill, the coaching staff's favorite after game meeting venue, for the after game celebration. The instructions at the Mill were to wait for a call on the game's final and if things didn't go as planned, give the cake to the homeless on Hennepin Ave.
So, we really needed to win this game, cuz God knows, I hate the homeless.
No, no, I don't hate the homeless. But come on, the last thing they need to worry about is their cholesterol, right?
At one point in the game, I think it was when there was five minutes left and we were only up by eight, my friend Kathy turned to me and accused me of radiating nervousness. It was true. But we held on, made our free throws and won the game.
500 career wins in 25 years as a head coach. That means that Jay has
averaged 20 wins a season. For a college coach, a 20 win season is a banner year. Back in the early days, Jay had a few years that weren't great, including his last year at Northern Montana, where he only won six games (which brought him up one short of the most wins of any coach at that school). So, Jay has had to have lots of seasons with more than 20 wins, and ever since Ron Gates became his assistant, that hasn't been a problem. They are very good at what they do.
So we won, in a gym packed with alumni, friends, family and press. It was a good night.
The party afterwards was great fun, too. I finally had to drag my kids away, as it was after 11:00 on a school night. When we got home, Zack unfolded the poster which Jay's friends had made for the game and given us. He spread it out on the dining room table.
"Coach Pivec. 500 wins. Congratulations, we love you" it said in black crayon. Zack read it out loud and said "When other people's kids write 'we love you', you know you're doing something right."
