I've learned valuable life lessons while attending UWSP men's basketball games | Column

Kit Swiecki

for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Attending a University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point men’s basketball game seems like an odd place to realize what is most important in my life. Thirty years after going to my first game, that is exactly what happened.

As a kid growing up in Stevens Point in the 1980s, I loved to play and watch basketball. I attended Coach Dick Bennett’s summer UWSP basketball camps and idolized the players. I would attend all the home games, usually with my father. We would cheer for the likes of Terry Porter and Tim Naegeli. The next day in the gym I would try to copy Dimitric Roseboro’s moves. I would practice free throws in order to shoot them as well as Brad Soderberg. I would grab rebounds during YMCA pickup games while imagining that I was Kirby Kulas. I would try to emulate the toughness of Todd Christianson.

After graduating from Pacelli High School, I went to New York to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and joined the Army. I was fortunate enough to have a wonderful military career as a general surgeon in places like Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Alaska, Hawaii, San Antonio, Honduras, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Over the course of many military moves and deployments I met my wife, Dee Dee, and had three of our four beautiful daughters: Mackenzie, Brooke and Claire.

The time came in 2010 to decide whether to stay in the military or become a civilian. We had been stationed far from family and had traveled enough to have an appreciation for raising our girls in a smaller university town. This landed us back in Stevens Point.

Soon thereafter, my father and I began attending UWSP men’s basketball games again. I had not followed them at all over my 25 years away but the games brought back the childhood memories and joy.

That first year, my father and I would go to the home games when we could. With work, having children in their own sports and activities, and the birth of our fourth daughter, Paige, the basketball games were few and far between. However, each time we went to a game I could tell there was something special there.

We are going to games more frequently lately. We link up and take the five-minute ride and walk to Quandt Fieldhouse. The game is now a backdrop for discussions between my father and me about work, marriage, my daughters, my brothers, and the ups and downs of life.

It is a time to share the last few days with each other. We hatch plans and simply enjoy each other's company. Stevens Point is a small community and it takes us a grand total of two hours from pickup to drop off. It is a short period of time in our otherwise busy days, but the time is high in quality.

Christmas gifts to each other have become season tickets. These are more than just tickets; they are symbols of our commitment to spending some quality time together.

Win or lose, the time is well spent. It is a link to our past but also a commitment to our shared future. Life has become about family, quality time, and building the relationships that make the mundane day-to-day activities important and meaningful.

Going to those games is an experience that allows me to become a better son, husband and father. We not only cheer for the basketball plays and players, but for our successes at home as well. We bemoan the bad plays and make comments like, “He should have made the extra pass!” We also criticize our missteps at home and talk through how we could have handled family situations better.

So thank you to the all the players, coaches, and fans who have provided not only some entertainment for my father and me, but also a life lesson in committed, quality time. After 30 years, the simple act of attending the UWSP men’s basketball games with my father has helped me realize how important it is to spend quality time with loved ones.

Kit Swiecki is a Stevens Point resident.