Sherri Coale Pens Fifth Journal

NORMAN, Okla. -- I have this love/ hate relationship with text messaging. Sometimes when my phone “blings” I want to throw it smooth out the window, but when it “blinged” 35 consecutive times after I turned it on following our win tonight, I held that baby in my hands and answered every single message! Without a doubt, the best part of winning is sharing it with people you care about.

My favorite part of winning at the Lloyd Noble Center is seeing my former players in the tunnel after the game. A close second are the conversations that follow, whether they be actual verbal replays with my brother or my best friend or quick exchanges with friends and mentors across the country via agile thumbs on a little black keypad.

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I'm just old enough to kick and scream at every new technological twist that comes down the pike, and just young enough to go with it anyway. At this point in my life I've made the executive decision that advancement is good, if you handle it instead of letting it handle you. I'll monitor the maddening grip that a cell phone can have on me for the connection it offers any day. Winning can be almost vaporousespecially for those of us charged with the task of doing it again in less than three daysand something about the imprint of words on a screen slows it all down a bit and helps it take form. I like form. Form is real.

My little team is off to a pretty remarkable run through conference play. That seems to be my word these days: “remarkable”. I'm a little annoyed at myself for being so redundant but nothing else seems to fit quite as well when it comes to describing a plethora of things. Speaking of . . .Courtney walked into my office last week, plopped down in the chair in front of my desk and said, “I'm going to make so much money off of my book when I graduate from college.” And I slid out of my chair laughing at her conviction and the probability of the improbable nature of it all.

She said, “What? You don't think I will?”

And I said, “No, I'm fairly certain you will. That's why I'm laughing.” It will probably happen because Courtney Paris has a fabulous story to tell and an uncanny gift for telling it. She's almost as good of a writer as she is a basketball player! No, I take that back. If she were, she might have to be stuffed into a pile with Conroy and DeFord and McPhee. If you haven't seen her play, that's how good she has a chance to be. And her book will be worth buying in four years, I promise.

Want to know what else qualifies as remarkable? 12,122 people jammed into the Lloyd Noble Center to watch a women's basketball game. . . people scalping tickets in the parking lot. . . faithful followers tailgating in 40 degree temps and a strong southern wind. I remember when there were 300 faithful and my assistant and I would whisper strategy because we didn't want the opposition to hear the changes we were toying with! Those were the days! Tonight the players couldn't even hear the officials' whistle! My how times have changed.

Remarkable is also the selflessness of my seniors (which I could write about for days and plan to at another time) as well as the readiness of all our guys to perform when their number is dialed.

When we beat Baylor in Waco, it was Kendra Moore coming off the bench to score 14 and hammer home the win with a nothing-but-net three at the end of regulation.

In College Station it was Laura Andrews' threes, in Columbia it was Ashley Paris' putbacks, and in Norman tonight it was Krista Sanchez putting on an offensive exhibition just when we needed it most.

That's what teammates do. They show up. They can be counted on. They deliver. Remarkable almost doesn't do those teammates justice. I'm not sure I know a word that does.

I remember treasuring, four short years ago, the voice mail messages logged in my phone following our national championship battle with Connecticut. I sat on the bus after the game listening to every one of them, the tears just streaming. And something about that etched the sentiment and the moment in my mind. Texts give me another column, an extra drawer in which to collect the moments I don't want to forget. And I find that, for lack of a better word, “remarkable”.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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