This week is what we all look forward to. This is the reason we all play sports. Winning the conference is a goal that every team sets out at the beginning of the season, now it is time to make it happen. If you do not want to be here, then why are you playing the sport?
In any sports, men's or women's, the conference championship is the most exciting part of the year. It is your chance to avenge losses to earlier opponents and defeat your rivals, ending their season early.
It is time to let go and give it your all without looking back. When you leave the field, court, track or course, you need to know that you gave it everything you had and did everything in your power to help your team come out on top.
It was brought to my attention last night that I only have one more season left in my collegiate career. Senior. This is it. How do you want to be remembered. Juniors, sophomores and freshman — you may never get this opportunity again, so do not take it for granted. Your time in school is short. Make it worth all of the hard work, and it will give you memories and stories that will last a lifetime.
In terms of sports as a whole, what is better than leaving the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference on a high note and making sure they know what they will be missing without us?
Fall and winter sports did their job, and we have a substantial lead in the President's Trophy race. Now, spring athletes, it is your turn to bring it home in the Lilly Center, where it belongs one last time.
Maybe not every athlete agrees with the conference change, but it is going to happen anyway, so now is our chance to send a message to both conferences. This is what you are missing and watch out, this is what is coming.
I'm not trying to say it is going to be an easy task to win every conference tournament and qualify for nationals, but every team has shown the capability of making a run and defeating anything in their way.
Being in a southern conference puts us at a bit of a disadvantage because we cannot start as early as some of our southern opponents. In track, we have an indoor season, which helps us get ready for outdoors, but it is just not the same. We cannot golf year round like some schools can, and baseball and softball have to spend time trying to come up with ways to play ball at the Indoor Track and Tennis Center.
Some may think that all of these things are a burden to our teams, but I disagree. These are all things that help set us apart. When adversity comes, we have already faced it. When things go wrong, we have already been there before.
I know it is cliché, but if you go out and perform like you can, there is no reason we cannot have multiple teams and Tigers competing at the national level.
Good luck to all of you this weekend and make sure to bring home the hardware with you.
— Brown is a junior from Poway, Calif., majoring in communications. sports@thedepauw.com