TicketCity Announces Annual Scholarship Program Recipient

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The TicketCity team is excited to announce the winner of the TicketCity Annual College Scholarship Program. If you’re familiar with TicketCity, you know that we love sports, but not as much as we love our sports fans. This scholarship is an opportunity for us to provide financial assistance to a college student who shares our passion for the big games – to the tune of $2,500.

The scholarship was open to all freshman, sophomore, and junior students enrolled in an accredited University with a GPA of 2.5 or higher. A short essay (500-800 word), along with a short form and picture/video of yourself showing off your game-day spirit completed the list of requirements. That’s it! Our panel of college sports enthusiasts has reviewed the submissions and this year’s recipient is Rachel Salisbury who has been a die-hard supporter of Brigham Young University from a very young age.

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Her submission can be read below:

I fell in love for the first time when I was 15. I had experienced infatuation before plenty of times- but that infatuation turned into a deep, burning love; a burning love for college sports.

I grew up in a family that worshiped sports, and from a very young age I fit nicely into that mold. I enjoyed standing in my dad’s shadow in my very own BYU sweatshirt, screaming at the TV before I was old enough to even distinguish that there were two different teams. When I hit my moody teenage years, I would pout and get snippy like every other girl; but my reason was because my team lost the night before. I was definitely invested; but it wasn’t until my dad took me to my first football game that I realized my infatuation with sports was actually an insane love; an extreme obsession.

I remember the day like I just lived it; it was 28 degrees on a Saturday night in November. I woke up that morning with my stomach churning, kind of like the way you feel when you go on your first date. On the drive to LaVell Edwards Stadium, decked out head to toe in every piece of BYU garb I could find in my house, I ran countless ideas through my head of what it would be like to walk into the stadium for my first time. Little did I know, there was no possible way to prepare myself for what I was about to experience. With tears streaming down my face, I walked into LES, proving that love at first sight exists. We climbed stair after stair to get to our seats just a few rows from the top of the stadium, all the while the smile on my face getting bigger and bigger. Really the rest of the night is history; with a win under our belt, I left the building that I fell in love in; feeling warm in freezing temperatures, not being able to feel my face from the glued-on beaming smile that wouldn’t disappear for days after. As soon as I realized how sports could make me feel, I had to have more. My obsession for sports grew from local to national. I learned as much as I could about everything that I could, and the knowledge that I have gained is something I will never lose.

Although I have experienced many indescribable sports moments- watching Kawhi Leonard and Jimmer Fredette battle each other in college, joining a sold-out arena in holding our breath while Gordon Hayward hit a buzzer beater to beat the LeBron and the Cavs, or listening to the screams and pounding of fists of my entire apartment complex when the UNC-Villanova championship game ended in the most outstanding way- no moment will compare to the moment when I first made my way into the stadium that would change my world. What I experienced that day has built a foundation for the rest of my entire life; and for the life of my future family, who I hope to raise in the same fashion the way my dad did with me; giving me the opportunity to fall in love with something that will be a part of me until the day I die.

Congratulations Rachel!

 

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