Gateway to the Final Four

Lindy La Rocque

Saturday, April 4, 2009 | 2:47 p.m.

Lindy La Rocque

Editor's Note: Former Durango High basketball standout Lindy La Rocque is a freshman guard at Stanford University. She will blog for the Las Vegas Sun about her experiences at the women's NCAA Final Four in St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS -- Coming to the Final Four is a dream come true. All week since our last game I have literally been the happiest person on earth. When we arrived Thursday night, we were warmly welcomed by the St. Louis girl scouts and an organization called Girls Inc., a group of 45 young girls from ages 5-14 that performed a dance-step routine for us. It was the most adorable and amazing performance. Our whole team was in awe.

We ate breakfast Friday morning and did our usual routine of watching video and preparing for our game against UConn. After that we went to St. Louis University for a two-hour practice. The starters on our team then did their ESPN video shoot. It took them forever, but it should be pretty funny on TV.

We had the Final Four Salute banquet in the evening. All four teams came together and ate dinner. While there, we got fitted for our Final Four rings and picked out what style we wanted. That was so surreal for me. Since I never got a ring in high school, the experience of picking out this ring was a blast.

After dinner, there was a short presentation of all the teams and their highlights along with interviews with the coaches and a couple of players. Once we got back to the hotel we were given our NCAA bags. It was like Christmas in April!. Nike really took care of all the teams and players with gear, shoes, watches, bags, and everything. It is awesome!

Overall, I am truly just living the dream.

I have tried to take pictures constantly and see everything that I can. Our team is really just living in the moment, cherishing everything that we are getting to do. It is really unbelievable and it’s super hard to even describe the emotion.

We have a big day on Saturday with open practice and press conferences.

Come back later to check it out!

Go Card!

Lindy