What it means to be a SportsGal

Hey Y'all it's your favorite (I hope) sports fanatic, Sports Gal89 in the buildin'. Normally I take a more conventional route and recap games, and athletes, but today I decided to talk to you a little bit about me, and how I came to be the fan that I am and what it means to be a fan in 2012, particularly as I reflect on my teams.
  So it is the 2012 season and I am a #SportsGeek! Let me recap why. My father, yup I am a self-proclaimed "Daddy's Girl." I have grown up around sports for much of my childhood, with my dad coaching High School football when I was younger, playing soccer and coaching men's women's soccer. I spent time with the football players in and out of our house for team meetings, I was the water girl at game days for soccer, and even assisted my father while he coached little kids in our summer leagues.
  I myself, played soccer, some softball and was a cheerleader for my elementary football teams. When I was in middle school, "Friday Night Lights" was the true heart of my growing up. Spending each Friday night at the High School Football game, where literally the entire town shutdown to be out at the game. My time in the stands razzing the visiting team from time to time.
   I loved watching sports, spending time in Pittsburgh at Pirates games. Going to a Steelers Game, driving with my dad on trips to NY and coming back to visit the Football Hall of Fame- our stop EVERY TIME we returned home. Sports literally courses through my veins. I love sports and I can't ever let it go.
   When I was in High School, unfortunately my love of sports was left to what was on TV as my HS was not large enough for a sports team of any sort. So instead I focused on the local teams that played on TV, at the time Stanford, Cal, Santa Clara etc. When I started college however, the whole scope of my understanding of the games changed. I entered college and my friend base were the athletes. My friends were the starters for our college football team, the starters for the basketball team, played volleyball or water polo. That was my crew. So I was at literally EVERY game, for one season straight my friends and I planned our work schedules based on the football games. We traveled with the team and watched them make it to the championship game. I would talk to the guys after games running through their weak sides and just talking with them. The respect of my crew was simply that "Keesha knows her ish." Some of my friends would joke, we play the game and you know it better than we do. Ha Ha.
  The love of the game came full circle in watching my teams play live. Going to a Lakers game, watching the Steelers play the Raiders, seeing the A's that was my real training. Watching live games AND studying them on TV.
  Literally all of this over-saturation of the games, created a MONSTER. So now here I am 27 years of life, with a sports blog and just this love of sports that I don't know where it comes from, but also recognize that as a female it has its limits. Why? I get a lot of comments from people that they'll say- "Wow, Keesha, you know A LOT about sports and it scares me." I have had guys tell me that I intimidate them with my knowledge. One, because I can get gully with the rest of them, when they talk about teams and games. Two, because when the game is on, I am focused. I am cheering, I am screaming at the TV, I am going in. I am a fan, I can't get it out of my system and honestly I don't know if I would have wanted it any other way.
  So if I could get on my high horse for a minute and speak to the ladies who are fans like me. Stick with it, we need more of us being vocal and proving that we have value as fans that isn't superficial. I think one of my favorite moments, is clowning the idiot who thinks that because I am a girl, I must not have any idea what is going on in the sports world. I let you think that for a second and then I just lay it all down and make you look STUPID. Sometimes it's not about me proving that I know what I am talking about more than it is me proving that I worthy of being listened to.
  So this is why I blog. I hope you like what you have been reading and continue to stop by and share my story.
  Thanks for indulging! That's all she wrote!