UML Honors Night at Costello Arena

     Around the first of November I opened up my e-mail to a message from my computing teacher James Canning involving a special night dedicated to all of the honors students who attend the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The e-mail read that Honors Night will be held at Costello Arena during the Women's basketball game where the Riverhawks of Umass Lowell planned to take on the undefeated and defending league champion Stonehill Skyhawks. My initial thought was why Professor Canning was trying to have us fill the arena for the women's game rather than the men's, since the men's team usually draws a much larger crowd. What really sold me was the closing statements "There will be free t-shirts, chicken wings, pizza and drinks!" I love all four of those so why not go support the Lady Riverhawks.


     Since the game started at 5:30 I had time to finish all of my homework before heading over to the arena with a couple of my floor mates. It's always extremely comforting to get everything done ahead of time. Once it turned 5 o' clock we began to head out to the game. After being stuck in a heated room since noon, the weather outside felt much worse than it actually was. Walking over the bridge I felt like my fingers and face was going to crack right off, and that the walk was much longer than usual. Upon arrival at the Costello Arena I was probably the happiest person on the entire Eastern C Board. The strife was over.

     Entering the main entrance there was a much bigger line for tickets than I anticipated. There was probably around 400 people standing in line or in the lobby waiting for their tickets to the game. Thank goodness I had a special honors ticket Professor Canning gave me in class that enabled me to skip the wait and enter the stands. Walking to our seats we noticed signs  saying "Honors Students and Family this way." so we followed them. Standing right there at the end of the detour was Professor Canning himself shaking hands with everyone who entered, introducing himself, and making them feel at home. After I shook his hand and told me he was happy I showed up, he introduced me to his wife, gave me a free t-shirt, and told me to help myself to some free chicken wings.

     It was now time for the game to start and the attendance had risen to around one thousand people. The game began with Stonehill pulling out to a twenty point lead, leaving Lowell confused on how to spark some offense. The whole time Professor Canning was yelling at the referees saying "That was a travel!" and "Where's the foul call!", each time reminding us that he was a former basketball referee. Eventually Lowell's star player and last years league MVP (whose name I do not know) took over the game scoring 21 consecutive points making the half-time differential only 2 points.

     At halftime Professor Canning took me and a few other honors computing students to meet some future employers, who used to be his students, along with the man who founded the computer science department at the university, Professor Costello. This turned out to be an even better night than I sought it out to be. Especially since in the second half the game heated up, going down to the last seconds. Lowell ended up losing by five since the Stonehill point gaurd hit a three pointer with 23 seconds left . Despite the loss Lowell played a great game, and you could tell that they were going to be a very dangerous team in the future.


     The Honors Night at Costello Arena turned out to be much more than just a gathering to celebrate the accomplishments and hard work of all the honors students attending the university. Here I began to appreciate the university more, and appreciate what I have here along with the opportunities Umass Lowell can create for me. For the most part since I've been here I always had the mentality that is was just a school that's close to home where I live 5 days a week, but now I'm beginning to get a feel for the college experience I thought I was lacking. All in all this was a good night and I'm happy I was able to attend this event. Hopefully there are more like this in my the future.