We absolutely did not know. We feel that we gave them our best bid possible - something that they could work with and we could work with.... It's a very competitive industry, and you don't know until the lottery announces and a contract is signed.

We are highly regulated, so those are issues that we expect to work through. But we expect to be able to do that in a three- to six-month time frame.

Because of this merger, we've become a much bigger and financially stronger company.

That's one thing that we really do well. We're a great passing team. We work on it all week in practice. And you see it out there. We kept finding opportunities because we kept getting the ball to open players.

Follow your passion was not the message I heard growing up. Instead, I was told that the practical realities of surviving "in the real world" were far more important than any person living a "sheltered life" such as my own could imagine. I was warned that overly idealistic dreams of "finding something I loved" could in fact be a breadcrumb trail into poverty and disappointment.

These girls work hard. They stay after practice, they take batting lessons, pitching lessons. The focus has been there all year and they are well prepared.