This ever happen to you?

So I was at my local watering hole on Friday night, a place I started drinking at when I was 18 (got in a few times after eating in the restaurant portion of the building, got to know people, they never carded me after that), enjoying a few adult beverages and a new crop of 21-year-old college students.

I get a drink from the bar and turn around to bump into six-foot tall brunette who -- after I apologize for bumping into her -- I realize was the starting middle blocker for a high school volleyball team I covered the night before.

She looked mortified, realizing who I was and I probably looked mortified, realizing I was drinking in the same establishment as a high school player I cover. Anyway, I just said I was off duty and not to worry about it. I then stayed on the far side of the bar and we avoided each other the rest of the night.

I've run into underage athletes I've covered in the bars before, but it was always kids who were in college and whom I no longer covered. This situation was a bit different, obviously.

To me, it's not a story unless she gets caught and/or suspended from the team. After all, as I mentioned, I was a high school senior drinking in the same place at that age (although I think she's only 17).

I am, however, curious to know if this has happened to any of you and what, if anything, you did about it.

 

No. (The court records have since been sealed.)

It amazes me though, on reflection, how easy it was to get alcohol back in the day.

I can remember buying mixed drinks in a restaurant at 16. ID? Hah!

 

Did her mom cook you breakfast the next morning?

 

Gentlemen don't tell.

 

Her payment for my silence was ... nevermind.

 

If your paper has a sudden increase in volleyball coverage, we will know why.

 

I often run in to athletes from Big State U. whilst I'm out surveying the nightlife of my happening, cosmopolitan corner of the Earth, but that's college.

High school, I'd have to laugh a lot about that.

 

I'm a sportswriter at a small midwestern paper. I never believed the stories in your magazine were true until one night...

 

I was waiting for someone to type that.

I love this site.

 

;D

 

That exact thing hasn't happened to me, no, but similar, and I don't see it as a big deal. Like you said, you did the same at her age. Live and let live. Hopefully she won't fear you going forward.

 

Use it as a feature idea, keeping the names of all the kids annonymous -- how many high school athletes spend time drinking at the area's bars.