![]() ![]() 'Shaquille O'Neal can't do that, and there's a 9-year-old girl doing that in a boys league,' said Meyer, his eyes twinkling. Playing on a boys basketball team at 9, Gigi, who did not play girls sports until high school, went to the foul line with no time left and her team trailing by one. While Meyer was an assistant at Notre Dame and then the head coach at Bowling Green State and then Utah, Gigi hung out with him during some practices and on game days, although during the latter she also played makeshift tackle games on side grasses with boys.Īt 12, she pitched Little League baseball and, Urban Meyer said, often met him at the front door when he came in at 10 at night, her bat and glove in her hands. While Nicki was the 'girl-girl,' Meyer said, Gigi was his 'tomboy.' Both daughters were born in Fort Collins, where their dad was an assistant at Colorado State. You don't fake waves and eye contact like that. It was obvious as Meyer called to his daughter ? 'Geeeeeee!' ? from an Alico Arena luxury suite while the Eagles warmed up on Oct. It was amazing that he came and watched me here against USF.' I can actually talk to him when we go out to dinner. 'But he would tell me every day how proud he was of me and would ask how I'm doing, ?How's volleyball going?' The fact that he always took time out of his day to see how I was doing made up for it. 'I wish he could've been there to watch some of the best games of my career,' the 18-year-old Gainesville Buchholz graduate said. Gigi Meyer said in October she was surprised at her dad's response. So I've been trying to make it up as much as I can.' 'That felt like a knife going into my heart. Dad, you were never there, but thank you.' 'She had a signing date with Florida Gulf Coast, and she didn't even realize she said it, not with that intent, but she said, ?I want to thank my mom ? she's over there crying ? I want to thank God. 'Huge,' Urban Meyer said, his eyes pooling, voice choking. 12, he was asked how big a factor Gigi was in his decision to take a break from coaching. When Urban Meyer was at FGCU to watch Gigi and company take down South Florida 3-0 on Oct. ![]() She also said it's all about following dreams, and leading Ohio State always had been one for her dad. When Meyer ? a native Ohioan who earned a master's degree from Ohio State after a playing career at Cincinnati ? decided to take over the Buckeyes program, he did so with his family's blessing, Gigi said. Eventually, we had to tell him, ?Hey, you're doing nothing but football and that's not what we want.'' We'd be at church and he'd be on the phone. When he came home at night he went straight to bed. 'Before everything he called me day and night,' Gigi said. If you think the tales of Urban Meyer's declining health, elevated stress and strained relationships with his wife and three kids that led to his departure from Florida after the 2010 season were a stretch, think again. 'I don't know how many times he'll be able to watch me and Nicki play, but I know he's going to try to follow us and get down here whenever he can,' she said. Gigi Meyer said she hopes to spend as much time with her dad as she did this year, when he lived in Gainesville but traveled each weekend as an ESPN analyst. It stipulates that he will take care of himself and stay involved with wife Shelley and their three kids. Gigi Meyer confirmed that her dad signed a family contract authored by eldest daughter Nicki ? a junior libero at Georgia Tech ? before taking over at Ohio State. Yet even as he scrambles to assemble a staff in Columbus, the 47-year-old Meyer is fulfilling his obligation to FGCU ? and more importantly, to Gigi ? to be the keynote speaker at tonight's Night at the Nest fundraising gala at Alico Arena. Meyer had cited health concerns and a desire to spend more time with his family, which includes his youngest daughter, Florida Gulf Coast University starting freshman setter Gigi. They say, and type, that the former Florida coach's reasons for walking away from UF ? where he led the Gators to the 20 national titles ? were baloney now that he's right back in the game after sitting out this season. In the aftermath of Monday's press conference introducing Urban Meyer as Ohio State's new football coach, some have tossed about the moniker 'Urban Myth.' ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |