I have a confession to make. It’s hard for me to talk about. Because Liberty defeated Coastal Carolina on a last second blocked field goal, it’s getting easier to swallow. Because I have the ability to be at Liberty’s first playoff game, I am taking steps to move past this decade long pain. So, without regret, here it is:
I missed the 2004 Big South Championship Game.
Yep. Probably the biggest game in Liberty men’s basketball history, I was a freshman, and I didn’t attend. It’s not something I’m proud of. Before you get ready to pick up stones and throw them, it gets worse:
I missed the game because I wanted to go home so that I could see a girl.
I know it’s hard to read that. But it’s all true. And the first step is admitting it. I sat in my girlfriend’s living room that day, knowing I had made the wrong decision. It was an era before the LUnatics. It was an era before Jerry’s Jokers. It was an era before these entire student groups emerged to cheer the Flames to victory. That was the first home game I missed all season. I spent every home game that night on the front row with about 10-15 friends and dorm mates yelling at the top of my lungs. I could tell you so many stories, like the time Buzz Peterson’s wife had a LU police officer come confront me because I yelled at Buzz the whole night about how he couldn’t hack it at Tennessee. And as I watched from a small town in eastern North Carolina, I felt guilty that I wasn’t there.
Guilty because my friends begged me to stay and go to the game. Guilty because I missed a game where ESPN would come and Liberty would blow out High Point on their way to their second NCAA tournament. Guilty because I didn’t support my school.
In the last ten years, whenever I find myself in a discussion about Liberty basketball with outsiders, occasionally they bring up that game. I had to tell them that I missed it. I remember vividly turning on ESPN and seeing my best friends in the front row, where I sat every game, painted blue. That could have been me on national television.
“But it’s one game,” you might say. That wasn’t just one game. That was the game. At that point in Liberty University history, it was the most important game ever. Ever. I simply chose a girl instead of the game.
Since then I’ve learned from my mistakes. After it didn’t work out with this girl, I met my future wife at Liberty. We go to Liberty games together. And it’s awesome.
And now with Liberty playing James Madison in what is now the biggest game in Liberty history, I feel like I get a chance to redeem myself. I will leave my family in North Carolina early this year in order to make it to Harrisonburg by kickoff. I will be there and I will be yelling my lungs out.
So dear Liberty students, please leave home a little early this year and come back for this playoff game. Because it is the most important football game in Liberty history. Please don’t make the same mistake I did. Harrisonburg is not that far away. Some of the greatest memories I have are traveling with friends to go to away games.
I wanted to share my story so that students know how big of a deal this is. It does matter if you attend this game. Don’t make the same mistake that I did. Win or lose, don’t regret not being there.
Will Matthews is an Ethics student at SEBTS, a graduate of Liberty University (’07), was the first Sparky mascot, and writes blogs about Theology and Wrestling at theoluchador.wordpress.com. He often tweets at @DidLibertyWin
