Those yellow lights.
It wasn’t my first thought Sunday night.
But once I started thinking about them, it’s all I could think about.
Yellow lights inside of a hockey rink located in the middle of Pennsylvania that no longer exists. Yellow lights that are no longer on. Yellow lights that are probably nowhere to be found.
How far things have come since those yellow lights.
How Sunday night wouldn’t have happened without those yellow lights. How so many people who have long cared about the state of hockey at Penn State have a memory attached to those yellow lights.
How those yellow lights meant something to people
How those yellow lights mean something to people.
How Sunday night felt and how those yellow lights were a part of the journey that got Penn State to Sunday night just before 8 p.m. How those yellow lights – like a goal in overtime – are a part of the journey that will go with Penn State men’s hockey to its first trip to the Frozen Four.
I just can’t stop thinking about those yellow lights.
How the rink underneath those yellow lights was the place that I learned how to skate, pushing a walker around. How those yellow lights made me fall in love with skating and with the sport of hockey. How that sport created my love for sports. How that sport helped make me who I am today.
How those yellow lights were the patina to my earliest memories – not just of hockey – but of Penn State. How those yellow lights reminded me of the way the soft pretzels – of the limited food options at the snack bar – tasted as I sat next to my mom on steep benches jammed to the one side of Greenberg.
How bad it would hurt if you got checked into that wall on the seating side under the yellow lights.
How I’d fall asleep on the ride home after watching or playing a game underneath those yellow lights – and the yellow replay of it flashed in my head.
How I’m not the only one who has formative memories tied to those lights.
How the thought of those yellow lights, mixed with the emotion of the Sunday, rushed in when that goal went in. How those yellow lights and that moment Sunday night meant so much to so many people who have come along for the ride since the days of those yellow lights – even the ones who started this journey before me.
How those yellow lights were a symbol.
How those yellow lights were an allegory of the scrappy teams that played underneath them.
How those yellow lights represented the hopefulness of a tomorrow – that maybe, just maybe someday those yellow lights could go away. Not for the headaches they’d produce but for the promise of what could be. For the promise of what eventually would be.
How those yellow lights are a piece of the journey that represented a dream that felt very far away.
How those yellow lights are a piece of the journey that became a reality in 2012.
How those yellow lights went away in 2013 – for much brighter, newer lights.
How disorienting those yellow lights were – like the pandemonium that comes every time Penn State scores a goal in the new place that doesn’t have those yellow lights.
How the steward of the cornerstone program that played under those lights would help make all of that — or rather this — happen.
How the last coach to lead his team into battle under those yellow lights would eventually take his team from the depths of the Big Ten standings to the NCAA Tournament to the Frozen Four in less than three months time. How, in between the last game underneath those lights and Sunday night, his persistence would pay off. How his leadership would make so much of the dreaming under those yellow lights a reality.
How those yellow lights were a part of the celebrations on the ice in Allentown.
How those yellow lights were a part of the celebrations on couches and in bars and in cars or wherever you were around Pennsylvania and around Hockey Valley and around the Penn State community.
How – without those lights – this all doesn’t happen. How Penn State doesn’t go from club to Division I to now in the brightest spotlight in the sport.
How even if those lights don’t shine anymore, they’re still on, backlighting all of those memories while Matt DiMarsico made a new one for him, for everyone who played, for everyone who coached, for everyone who covered this team and for everyone who cheered.
How those lights will stay on in those memories as this program takes a new step forward – its biggest leap yet.
How far things have come since the days of those yellow lights.
How much has changed since those yellow lights.
How Sunday night and the promise of what comes after Sunday could bring wouldn’t be possible if those yellow lights didn’t offer any promise at all – all those years ago.
How those yellow lights represented a dream that we’re still in.
How those yellow lights will be on in St. Louis.
How – without those yellow lights – Penn State wouldn’t be going to the Frozen Four.
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