a cinderella story

I live in south central Virginia. So it is not uncommon for my husband and I to go to Richmond frequently. All of our kids ended up migrating there after they moved out. It's a cute little city with a nice theater, frequent concerts, some good restaurants and plenty of festivals and museums. Not to big and not to small I would venture a guess that the population is about 200,000 or so. The people are generally friendly, shopping is decent and malls abound, we have a canal walk, a beautiful river and remember if you ever visit and ask for tea it is always sweet!

You would have to be pretty much living under a rock at least around here not to have basketball fever. People around here are going crazy since my sons alma mater the VCU's basketball team were invited to the NCAA tournament. It seems the whole city is in on the fun and enjoying the city's Cinderella Story. There are kids beeping their horns, t-shirts with the college logo are the usual garb now, downtown buildings are lit up with the college name, banners hanging from buildings and houses everywhere. 

Not many people thought VCU deserved to be in the NCAA tournament to begin with- there are always naysayers. They advanced first after beating some of the best college teams in the nation, USC and Georgetown Purdue and Florida State . Then into the elite eight where they beat Kansas. Now this team of kids-living a life's dream have earned their ticket to the final four. Saturday they play Butler for a chance to be in the national championship- wouldn't that be something? 

I saw a interview with the president of the University last night on the local news. The college had had millions of hits on the college web site- they have also had a quarter of a million in donations in the past three days.It's a nice campus down town and my sons received a good education there. It's good to see the University and the City of Richmond both have their moment in the spotlight.

I am in awe of this amazing group of young men and their coach Shaka Smart who have worked, prayed and played their hearts out and won the hearts of their city, their state- all of us who love a Cinderella Story.