Meeting The Virginia Tech Men's Basketball Team

Working out at the YMCA, provides many other opportunities than just the potential of a fit body!! Your membership grants you special perks, such as childcare, discounts on children events, such as sports/dance, indoor pools, saunas and so much more.  Often times, they even advertise for "date nights".  Mommy and daddy go out on the town and the YMCA employees watch your children. That's what I'm talking about. LOL! IF you are an employee at the YMCA, you are even granted a free membership.  I cannot wait for that to take place; that will add $80, a month, back into our pockets!!! This weekend, we had the honor of meeting the Virginia Tech, men's basketball team aka #vtmbb, at the YMCA. Although this event was actually opened to the public, advertisement was very minimal, so being a member came in handy because we were given the inside scoop. 

The team was very humble and I feel confident I can attribute that to their new coach, "Coach Buzz William!".  He, too, was very humble and kind. As a matter of fact, the team arrived in a normal, "cheese" colored school bus.  I asked Will Johnston, one of the players, on the way out of the YMCA, WHY they rode a standard bus, to the YMCA, and he said, "Coach Buzz wants us to earn everything that we have/receive!" WOW! You don't see that or hear that very often.  We live in a world where people think the hard working people should pave the way for those lazy people that don't do anything. You know, the "everyone should get a trophy" mentality!

As we waited for the players/coaches to arrive, the kids' snacked on some yummy food.  Virginia Tech provided Papa John's Pizza and Buffalo Wild Wings for the guests.  We ate dinner, right before arriving, but that didn't stop the kids form digging into that pizza. 

Tyson enjoyed receiving autographs from each of the players, up close and personal. The players were giving posters and were willing sign them. Tyson also had them sign his VT basketball jersey!  A little boys' dream for sure...okay, a BIG boys' dream too. Darren was on cloud 9.

Can you tell from the smiles, that Darren may have enjoyed this experience MORE than the kids?!?!

Ty waited patiently while each player signed the back of his jersey!

While Darren made certain to shake each players' hand and make small talk!

Check out how tall Satchel compared to Ty.  He's 7'1".

Lilah was able to meet the cheerleaders, as well as, the Hokie Bird.  Jax chose spending the evening celebrating a special occasion with Cohen over meeting "celebrities".  Lilah was blessed with some Hokie colored pom-poms.  

This was our first opportunity to meet the Hokie Bird in person!

Lilah decided at the last minute to have some of the players sign her cheerleading outfit too!

And then she took it ONE step further...she began modeling with the team.  LOL! How cute would it be for the team to have a young spokesperson for the team!

The team of coaches arrived one hour after the players.  As soon as Coach Buzz Williams arrived, he greeted Lilah and Ty immediately.  It was so funny.  We weren't the ONLY ones there, but he just gravitated to our children.  

He spoke to Lilah about her "darling bun", which Lilah cried about me doing, to her, before we left our house.  He spoke to her about how her daughter doesn't like buns either.  

Then, Coach Buzz took out his phone and ask me to take a picture of Ty and Lilah with HIS phone.  Today, their photo appeared on his twitter account.  So cooooool!!!!! The photo below was snagged off of Coach Buzz's account.

After all of their autographs were given out, the team got on the court for a few minutes to play with their fans. 

We were then formally introduced to each player, managers, and coaches of the team.  Coach Buzz spoke to all of the local kids about how "You can't have everything you want.  You can only have anything you DESERVE!"  We used the example with our children, if you "want" a nice body, but you digest nothing but bad food, you don't deserve a good figure. BUT, if you want a nice figure, eat healthy and work out, then you deserve a nice figure! Makes perfect sense to me. Our kids definitely understood it...even LILAH!

We are thankful to the YMCA for hosting this event and for the VA Tech Basketball players and coaches to give up their weekend to serve the community.

Enoy the recap video, from our night, at the Salem Family YMCA.  The first video footage was captured from the VA Tech's videography staff.  Lilah and Jax made it to the FIRST part of the video, screaming, "GO HOKIES!"

*Disclaimer: I prefer to keep my instagram posts and my blog posts totally separate from each other. If I duplicate efforts, I realize, it's quite possible that you, my reader, may become bored. However lately, my instagram posts are "memories" I desire to document and have as a permanent memory, that is why I am putting many duplicate things on my blog. If you follow me on instagram and blogger, then I apologize if you are seeing things twice. I promise I will try not to make a habit of it.