With Basketball Paused, Kelly Roysland & Eric Curry Embrace Family Time
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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- They are bonded by basketball and marriage. One is a college coach, and the other is college referee.
That meant this could have been one crazy month of March, and it was -- but not because of basketball.
Kelly Roysland understands March Madness. She played on the Gopher women's only Final Four team.
"I had such a great experience in the Final Four and playing in the tournament," Roysland said.
She is now an assistant on the Gophers current team, one aspiring to do what her team did, which is why she is there.
"It's not easy to do, and certainly, you know, that's a goal of ours coming up here in the next couple years," she said.
Her husband, Eric Curry, is a referee. Normally, he would be working the NCAA Tournament this month -- a highlight of his year.
"Everybody comes together, and the venues are packed, and it's a win-or-go-home situation," Curry said. "We sat in our breakfast meeting, got our assignments. I was supposed to have Arizona State that night, and about 10 minutes later they came in and said, 'It's all over with.' Four hours later, I was on a flight home."
This month could have been a busy one, the way seasons ended were disappointing. But this will still go down as memorable. More than a week ago, they welcomed Hayes Fredrick Curry, their second son.
"This is a pretty awesome experience to have when you know that basketball might be done for a little bit, so it worked out great timing-wise for our family," Roysland said.
The story was not over. Hayes had some medical issues with his heart beat.
"We had a little health scare with him the day after he was born, and we went right over to [Children's Minnesota hospital], and can't say enough about what they did," Curry said.
So there is a blessing, like so many, in a different way.
"While it is hard to not be out and in your routine, we're really taking advantage of this time as a family, which we have never really gotten before," Roysland said.
And now they have, despite all the dire circumstances over the past few weeks, a blessing that reminds us that life goes on, and some of it is still very good.
"We were wondering here for the last month, you know, when the birth would fall in a timeline for the tournament and all that stuff," Curry said. "But you know what? It worked out."
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