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Happy Thanksgiving from Florida Husker Fans!
After a one-year hiatus from spending Thanksgiving in a hotel room together, Husker Sports Network play-by-play man Matt Coatney and I are together again, hundreds of miles from home trying to figure out when its time to eat a Thanksgiving meal with our favorite team.
This year, Thanksgiving in Tallahassee, Fla., is a new one for us. In fact, it is the Nebraska women's basketball team's first-ever trip to Tallahassee. The Huskers play Florida A&M (2 p.m.) on Friday and Florida State on Sunday (1 p.m.).
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of spending Thanksgiving with Coatney in Hawaii, and an even better experience with my cousin Cary and his family, who were stationed with the military in Hawaii. Thanksgiving with family is always good, and is something to be cherished. I know my Thanksgiving with my wife, Emily, our kids Hollan, Jackson and Brennan, and of course my mom and Emily's parents last year was worth remembering because it was a rare treat.
Coatney has the special coincidence of spending Thanksgiving in Tallahassee with his daughter, Jill, who is a freshman this year at Florida State. It was great to see Jill last night. Jill is a huge women's basketball fan and has spent several road trips making memorable drives with Coat and I wherever we went on different journeys in the Big 12. Jill still manages to edit my work on Huskers.com.
I'm happy Coat gets to see Jill for a couple days in Florida. He is a great dad to his four kids. I know he'll miss Nate, Ben and Hannah this Thanksgiving, but he gets to bother them enough every day in Lincoln.
These annual Thanksgiving trips always give me a chance to re-assess and realize what is really important in my day-to-day life. For those of you who know me, I tend to get wrapped up and locked in to what I do to somewhat extreme lengths, and lose sight of things that might be more important.
Thanksgiving usually cures that for me until about July - then I have to go through the same process again the following year.
This trip to Florida is Coach Yori's first trip with the team since her complications with knee surgery in late-August/September. She has been making progress, but I was worried about how a long day of travel would affect her. She did great yesterday, and traveling with this team for the first time, was an enlightening experience. We've got some good characters in this group.
Mechelle Voepel from ESPN.com was at the Devaney Center for our win over No. 23 USC on Nov. 18. Mechelle has always provided amazing coverage of women's basketball around the nation, and especially in the Big 12 region. It was great to see her at Devaney the other night, and she spent some time, along with ESPN/FSN announcer Brenda Vanlengen, talking to Coach Yori after the game. You can read more about Mechelle's trip to Lincoln and her conversation with Coach Yori in the article she posted on ESPN on Nov. 23.
Mechelle's story, Coach Yori's battle over the past three months, my trip to Florida at Thanksgiving, my family and this team remind me what Thanksgiving is all about today. Hopefully, I'll be able to maintain this perspective until next Thanksgiving.
I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and remember yourselves what you have to be thankful for today and every day.
We hope you can join us throughout the trip on the Husker Sports Network to listen to this group of Huskers learn the ropes on their first road trip. It is going to be fun following this team this season and watching them grow.
Go Big Red!
Jeff