Memories of Bekah

I do not know how to write just a few words, so instead I will share a couple of my favorite stories about her. I'll first start of by saying that there are two things about her that I really admired: her dance moves, and the fact that she did not have a speed (on the field and in life) less than 121%. This number was empirically collected and calculated, and if you would like the equation for which I derived this number, you can't because it's a secret between her and me.

Two Battleship tournaments ago displayed a night of party-Bekah epicness. After the tournament, we all went to the downtown social with all the other teams. Mind you, Bekah does not drink, which to a team of wild and rebellious girls who often misplace their dignity, Bekah was literally a life saver on many occasions. This night we were actually on real people time, and got there before most of the other teams, so we all sat down and enjoyed a few refreshments while talking about the finer points of our play that day (we took home 3rd place for the Collegiate Women, I have the plaque to prove it). After a while, the dance floor heated up, and being Seminoles through and through, we are naturals at dominating the party, and swiftly took over the dance floor. We really got the party started. This is where Bekah's dance floor legacy will live on unrivaled. Though I'm generally not in contact with the areas of the brain that control motor movements (other than on the pitch), this night I was quite pleased with the music, and I lived in the moment thinking I was the greatest dancer to ever live. But then I see Bekah. I literally stopped moving, stood there jaw agape, and stared. I was mesmerized by her feet. I'll do my best to accurately describe what she was doing. Her feet were the most awesome part of this display of moving art because they were moving left together, and then right together, and then they were sliding apart and back together again. I'm pretty sure at one point she detached them from her body, and they danced on over to the other side of the bar by themselves. It was almost like she had a sit down with Newton the day before, and asked him how to stop gravity so that her feet could do unnatural things without violating the laws of physics. Her knees were kind of like a butterfly flapping its wings only with more color and style. Most people today do the "grinding" dance motion and think it's really sexy, but Bekah was bringing back the solo dance style. Her hips were in unison with her knees, which basically put them on a swivel, also violating the laws of physics. And then there were her arms. If you can move your lower torso in beat with the music, you are a semi-coordinated dancer, but if you can move your shoulders, hands, stomach, neck and head all in the same fashion, you are Bekah. I realized I had been severely upstaged, and my love and admiration for her increased 20 fold. At the end of the night we were all exhausted and ready to leave, but Bekah slapped a new pack of batteries in her and out partied us all. In true Bekah compassion, she made sure all of us got back to our hotel safe and sound, and after I fell asleep, I'm 70% positive she went back to dance some more.

That is Bekah's off the field personality. Her on-the-field personality is not much different. She upstaged everyone dancing just like she upstaged everyone's tackling skills. Bekah was the one person you absolutely did not want to go up against in tackling drills. If you saw you were going up against her, you made excuses for how your foot hurt and had to sit out, or your pinky was in slight pain, or you flat out said "No thank you, I do not wish to die tonight," and made the unfortunate soul behind you take her on. I can't remember how many times I heard, "Oh my God, please not Bekah, anyone but Bekah, crap I'm going against Bekah," then said a brief prayer, and hesitantly made a forward motion. If you were the one getting tackled by her, I'll tell you what you saw every single time without fail: a skinny, muscular bull with a hint of tornado storming towards you, and you have nowhere to run except into her loving, crushing arms. After bull dozing you, she would stand up, smile, maybe laugh a little bit at the fear that was still in your eyes, and then pat you on the back and say you did a good job. She would always offer ways to avoid tackles, and teach correct form. Playing with all out intensity and teaching fundamentals to newer players were by far the most important things to her. If everyone showed as much passion and need to play better and more efficiently as Bekah, maybe we would have won a game last semester.

I'll say one more thing about her. She didn't really have a position. Bekah is what one would call a "utility player" because you can put her in anywhere, and you could not tell that she is indeed not a wing, but a lock. She was a #4, but also a 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and I think she played 1 or 3 at some point as well. She was a damn good forward with quick feet and team sensibility, but my favorite was watching her play wing and seeing another little wing run at her, all the while knowing the little one's fate.

There are so many other stories, but these are my favorites. Two words come up over and over again when describing her: intensity and passion. She had a love for the game and a love for life. Through stories and memories, she is always here smiling, laughing, and loving.