It’s March, and anything can happen

It’s March, which means bars and restaurants will likely have one or more NCAA basketball games on.
Offices, whether in person or virtual, will have a lot of chatter about who is ahead in their office pool for brackets as the thrills of seeing how their picks, random for most people, are doing.
I am a much bigger fan of college basketball than the professional level. I watch a fair amount of basketball or will, at least, have it on in the background while I’m doing other tasks.
Somehow, I rarely ever do well with picking who will advance far in the tournament.
I remember one particular year, while I was working in St. James, when my colleague Robbie and I convinced the rest of our office to go in on creating brackets.
I think the winner got to pick where we got pizza or something harmless in nature. It was a long time ago (pre-COVID), so I don’t remember all the details.
But what I do remember is two sports fanatics got crushed by people who barely ever watched a basketball game.
Robbie is from the Bronx and went to college with me in New Hampshire.
I recruited him to join me a few months after I moved to Minnesota; he needed a job, and Robbie was one of the best sports reporters I knew.
What was the secret? Our colleagues picked a lot of underdogs.
People love an underdog story.
Every year during this time, many, many people, myself included, start cheering for the underdogs in the NCAA tournament. Many people will choose the No.16 team, as it’s seen as the biggest upset possible in any sport.
People turn to sports as a stress reliever from the many negative things happening in the world day after day. Sports is one of the last escapes. When people watch sports, they are often hopeful there will be a heartwarming story to follow.
An underdog.
A perfect example of this comes from the place Robbie and I went to school.
Franklin Pierce University is a small college in a small community called Rindge, New Hampshire.
The town was small, but it had a Walmart, Hannaffords and Market Basket (regional grocery stores), and it’s New England so, of course, we had our own Dunkin’ Donuts.
One of the most popular places for college students to go, aside from the packy (liquor) store, was the gas station just about five minutes down the road.
This place had the best coffee around, with a little coffee shop right inside the gas station and, as most students used, a drive-thru.
New Hampshire only sells wine and liquor in state-owned packy stores, but as with our friends over the border in Wisconsin, stores can sell full alcohol beer.
As you can imagine, it was a popular destination for young people to get their cheap tobacco and a six-pack.
This small town is home to a university that played last week in the National Collegiate Women’s Hockey Tournament, the women’s hockey version of March Madness.
Getting the tournament berth was a major feat for the program.
Franklin Pierce is a Division II school, and unlike most other sports, the NCAA tournament for hockey consists of both Division I and Division II schools.
Our school added women’s hockey around the same time they added track and field, in 2012.
I was on the second-ever track and field team.
Our facilities weren’t anything special. We did not have our own track, so a couple of days a week, we practiced at a high school in the neighboring town.
When it snowed, we practiced inside our multi-purpose dome, which was equipped with everything from our weight rooms to basketball courts.
Sometimes, especially during the offseason, we’d train on a grassy field with the most beautiful view of what is called Mount Monadnock.
Aside from the view, this was not a great place to do sprints and other exercises getting ready for the season.
It wasn’t ideal, but it worked.
We had some of the fastest people in the county, including a national champion, on our team, along with some top field athletes.
While we trained in our indoor multi-use facility, oftentimes we’d see our hockey team training.
Like us, they did not have their own facility, and instead, shared a facility with a private high school team in a neighboring Massachusetts community.
While the Ravens lost in the first round of the tournament, it is impressive to think how far the program has come.
My wife and I attended a Gophers versus Mavericks game last year in Minneapolis. Even then, I did not stop to think my former college could be playing for a national championship with a team like the Gophers.
But that’s the beauty of sports, especially at the college level.
There are plenty of storylines and plenty of upsets to be had during March Madness.
And I will be rooting for them.