Howdy! It’s Parents’ Weekend.
In honor, I challenge you to think of a few things that are better to enjoy with or without family and friends than Aggie sports. It’s time for the Fightin’ Texas Aggies to take the stage.
Let’s dive in.The Maroon and White Game is scheduled for Saturday, and there is so much for A&M football fans to be excited about. The coaching staff is retooled. The offensive line is reloaded. Senior quarterback Jerrod Johnson is getting the rest he needs and will enter the season with some of the greatest hype an Aggie quarterback has ever received.
Recruits will be coming in from all over to experience (relatively) what game day is like in Aggieland.
Me? I think we’re on the eve of the season that puts Aggie football back on the map.
But after languishing in the abyss with no A&M football for four months, we’re all excited just to be nearing it again, and we all have hopes that spring eternal. At least for now.
Hey, hold on. There’s something you need to face.
Aggie football season is five months away.
We have other sports going on right now, believe it or not. They’re all in season and they’re all achieving higher success than the football team did last year. They’re all achieving higher success than the football team can right now too, considering that the football team is progressing through its offseason.
That’s OK, though. Bear with me. I promise, I’m only asking you to enjoy an all-inclusive Aggie athletics experience.
This is one of the best three-day sequences of the year for A&M sports fans. Beginning today, the baseball team (20-11-1, 6-5-1 Big 12) will participate in what is annually their biggest series of the season, against archrival No. 4 Texas. How they perform will make or break the season. Saturday and Sunday’s games will be over in Olsen Field, and they’ll be packed. If your parents are Old Ags, they’ll have a soft spot in their heart for Aggie baseball.
You won’t want to miss it.
The men’s tennis team (20-4, 5-0 Big 12) heads to Austin tomorrow for a match that pits the No. 3 and No. 9 squads in the country, with the Big 12 regular season championship on the line. It’s the first time the Aggies have been in the top-10 since 2005, and they’ve won 13 straight matches. Their lineup features the No. 5 and No. 35 singles players in the entire nation, who together comprise the No. 4-ranked doubles tandem in the college game. It’ll be a legendary contest, and the team is inviting you to come along with them. An e-mail to Texas A&M director of operations Kevin O’Shea at [email protected] will get you a ride on the buses to Austin with them.
Now you may have forgotten, but the men’s golf team is the defending NCAA national champion. Currently sitting at No. 5 in the rankings, they’ve done their part thus far to defend it. Saturday and Sunday will ring in the Aggie Invitational at the Traditions Club — the only home tournament of the year for the guys. This team is worth a look before they bring home the trophy again.
And yes, there is the Maroon and White Game. Thankfully, it will start earlier than all of Saturday’s other events, giving it a nice niche in the schedule. If you want to kick off your Aggie sports Saturday with a bang, this is the way. A raging, shifting wind of change blows down the streets of Aggieland each day, and sometimes it feels like Old Army is dead and gone, taking many dear traditions with them.
Aggie football is one of the things left that always, without fail, still makes me feel like I’m at the Texas A&M my parents always told me stories about.
The truth is, though, each and every one of our sports teams gives us something to genuinely be proud of. It’s time to recognize that.
So go. Go to the Maroon and White Game, enjoy yourself, and look forward to what lies ahead in September. Although it’s a glorified scrimmage, it is the first look at the Noble Men of Kyle since December, and even I’ll admit that there’s something special about that.
But make sure you keep your plans open for more sports after. It’s going to be a long weekend.
For the opposition.
Beau Holder is a freshman English major.