It’s December of your sophomore year. Snow swirls all around you as a biting wind nips at your colorless face. Only a couple hundred diehards are left, surrounding you in the student section of Rentschler Field, as Dave Teggart lines up for the game-winning field goal.

This season, filled with so many ups and downs, has come down to one last dramatic moment. The UConn linemen stare down the South Florida defense, with the long snapper gripping the ball tight, waiting for his cue. Everyone raises their hands in anticipation as Teggart stands at the ready. The snap is good, the kick is up, and it hangs in the air on a perfect trajectory as it sails through the uprights, sending the Huskies home winners.

The breathtaking cold melts away as you tackle your friends in delirious celebration. They did it! They actually did it! The hours spent out in the bitter cold were worth it. Long after the numbness in your extremities fades, the memory of this evening will remain.

Flash back to August of 2008. It’s been a week since you first arrived in Storrs, and you’re still adjusting to the whole college experience. Now you’re experiencing UConn football for the first time, and the conditions couldn’t be better. A nice gentle breeze warms your skin in the late summer twilight, and surrounded by your fellow Huskies, you discover the “Stick It In” chant as Donald Brown runs all over the Hofstra defense.

For the first time, you truly feel like a part of the UConn family. It’s everything you thought it would be when you were nine years old, grinning from ear to ear on your family’s couch as Rip Hamilton and the Huskies cut down the nets after winning the 1999 National Championship game. Unless you didn’t discover UConn until later, or fell in love with sports someplace else.

Maybe you’re the nine-year-old boy glued to his TV as Ted Williams emerged from the tunnel at the 1999 All Star Game, or the 12-year-old boy whose Dad brought him to the inaugural New England Patriots game at Gillette Stadium with his grandfather. Maybe you were the high school sports freak who used to wake up every morning and watch SportsCenter in the kitchen with his Mom over breakfast, obsessing over March Madness even though he didn’t have his own team to root for yet.

Regardless of where you came from, it didn’t matter whether you were a Husky for life or a late arrival to the party by March of 2009. The men’s basketball team was on a roll, and all of Husky Nation was along for the ride.

The Huskies were going all the way, you were sure of it. Until you found yourself sitting in your dorm room, watching hopelessly as the team was being pounded by Michigan State in the national semifinal.

As the clock dwindled down to zero, it suddenly occurred to you that you might not get another chance to see a Final Four run at UConn. This may have been the highlight of your UConn basketball career, and you just spent it sitting in your dorm room instead of in Detroit.

Two years later in Houston, that memory helps you appreciate the moment so much more as the confetti starts falling all around you. Coach Calhoun and Niels Giffey are embracing, Jeremy Lamb is smiling and however unlikely it may be, the Huskies are national champions. Back at campus, your friends are going buckwild, climbing trees, burning pianos and hugging total strangers, but there’s nowhere else in the world you’d rather be than right here.

It seemed impossible just a month ago after you watched the team crumble at home against Notre Dame. But then you went to New York, because you believed in them. You watched them throttle DePaul, and then Georgetown, but you didn’t honestly think they could get past Pittsburgh.

Until suddenly you found yourself in the crowd, watching in near disbelief as Kemba carried the ball just beyond the arc with just 10 seconds to go, the score tied 74-74. Kemba sized up his defender, the hulking Gary McGhee, and the crowd rose to its feet as Kemba made his move. 

Three…

Kemba steps forward.

Two…

He stops short, and McGhee falls to the ground.

One…

He steps back and takes the shot.

Swish.

As seniors, each of us have experienced these moments in our own unique way, but they will always be memories that we can share, even as we move on to the next stage in ours lives.

After four amazing years, that time has finally come. I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know that I will always cherish the time we spent here, the experiences we shared and the opportunity I had to serve you as this paper’s editor.

It has truly been an honor and a privilege. Thank you for reading and good luck to all of you in your future endeavors.