Because I am a celebrator of awesome…I just have to celebrate a few things.

First, if you missed this story, please check it out. It went viral. Spencer Lee, a wrestler from The University of Iowa went on to win his 3rd NCAA Wrestling Championship this past weekend. This statistic is impressive in and of itself. However, this young man did it after having torn his ACL just 8 days prior. He has already torn his other ACL. When interviewed after his win and questioned about the adversity he had been facing in the championships he said “excuses are for wusses.” Ummmm, I love him. Can’t teach this, but man it has to be celebrated. I love a tough kid! This kid is 100% tough. Awesome! Congrats to him and his awesomeness…and his toughness…oh and congrats on the three national titles. That’s pretty awesome as well!

The second story of awesome I want to celebrate are the pair of brothers that almost beat KU in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Jacob and Tanner Groves. I am a former Kansas Jayhawk athlete, I love my alma mater. I wanted them to win. These two brothers almost made me cheer for their team. They did make me cry.

These two brothers combined for 58 of their teams points. They played with enormous heart and never, ever quit playing hard. It was beyond awesome.

Bryan and I are always talking about leaving your mark when you play sports…make sure everyone knew you were there, in a good way. These two young men did that for us in our house. Everyone was rooting for them, even though we wanted KU to win. I even gave them a standing ovation at the end of the game when one fouled out and the other came off the court at the end of the game. Also, when they hugged each other off the court at half time, I may have cried a few tears then. Our kids may have made fun of me…but it led to good discussion about why something like these two guys playing their butts off would make their mom cry.

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Even Bill Self said something to them after the game.

Respect.

Leaving your mark makes it impossible for others NOT to respect you and it’s awesome.

I love March Madness for this reason. It’s beautiful and it makes me happy and it teaches our young humans who love sports the lessons we are always trying to instill in them. Leave. your. damn. mark. It means everything.

I’m rooting for my Jayhawks tonight…it’s not off to a great start…so here’s hoping!

In other news, I did take Fletcher to school today for a school day that he didn’t have…so that was awesome. He got out of the car and they were like…oops, no kindergarten today! Fantastic. I guess I should have looked at my calendar.

#dorseyshenanigans

#celebr8awesome