Guys and Dolls

The men’s basketball team lost a special friend last fall whom they are not sure will ever be replaced: Diva.

Diva is a four-foot doll dressed in a pair of jeans and a cute little shirt with her name written across the front.

“We actually bought it on a road trip,” said junior Jamie Jackson. “We were at a truck stop and our bus driver was getting gas.” Jackson said there was a large rack full of the dolls inside the station and when they saw Diva, a purchase was necessary and would be a perfect tool for freshmen orientation.

“We didn’t really know what we were going to do but we had to get it,” said Jackson.

Devising a plan did not take long.

“We decided that when you come in as a freshman, each freshman has to carry Diva with him for a week at a time and if you leave Diva unattended and one of the upperclassmen got her, you had to do the Diva Run.” The Diva Run consisted of running the length of the court with Diva in hand.

Freshmen were required to carry Diva with them to classes, keep her in their room and were even told they had to bring her to the showers. “The only place Diva cannot be taken by one of the upperclassmen was in the gym,” Jackson said, referring to it as “base.”

Diva would take a step back from the team’s scene and return to her assigned corner, properly named “Diva’s Corner,” when official practice began every season.

Unfortunately, Diva was misplaced at the end of her season this past fall. “I’m hoping she’ll show up in the gym somewhere,” said Jackson. However, he also said that if she does not, there will be no replacing Diva and a new freshmen orientation ritual will begin. “It won’t be as fun as having Diva with the guys...because, basically, it was grown men walking around with a four foot doll.”

For the men’s basketball team, when Diva went to her corner at the beginning of the season, it meant it was time to get serious all around. The team spends countless hours together in the gym, on the bus and at the games. Jackson did say that the guys do have an appreciation for needing time beyond that to have fun together that does not pertain to basketball.

“We went bowling (as a team) for the first time as a team last year,” Jackson said. “Were on a losing streak—four games in a row—and to relieve some of our stress and to get us together—to bond us—Coach D got all the coaching staff and players tog ether and made it mandatory to go…so instead of practice we went bowling.”

This past season the team never had any mandatory outings, but according to Jackson, there were multiple times when quite a few team members carried on the bowling tradition.

Road trips for the basketball team typically do not have planned excitement; however, the guys have found themselves in some trouble due to wintry weather at times.

**Adam Brames, Jamie Jackson and Matt Otte (pictured), of the men's basketball team, live together along with Matt Pait**

Last season a snow storm hit as the team traveled to Indianapolis causing one of their coldest adventures.

"For some reason a mile away from an exit our bus driver decides he needs to pull off and wipe off the windshield,” Jackson said, explaining that the road could not be seen and the bus ended up out of the emergency lane and into the grass where the bus ended up stuck.

“We had to get out of bus and walk mile in a blizzard to a truck stop—then the truck stop kicks us out because we’re not going to eat in the restaurant.” The guys ended up walking to a McDonalds where they all bought cheap Happy Meals while they thawed out. They never made it to the game that day.

The team spends countless hours together, whether it be on the court, in the locker room, on the bus or in the snow. And when they aren’t with one another, one of them may be lucky enough to have the company of a lovely lady named Diva.

**Photos by Michael Mahlbacher and Marisa Larkin**