Poole Shots
by Murray Poole
Lainie Bobo: Florida girl grew up loving Dogs
NE VER SE E T TLE FOR LLESS NEVER SETTLE YOU DESERVE MOORE
The Bobo Family - Olivia, Drew, Kate, Mike, Jake, Lainie, Ava Grace
Despite growing up in Sarasota, Fla., on the picturesque coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, Lainie Bobo never even considered going off to college at one of those Florida schools, say either the University of Florida or Florida State University. For Lainie, the former Lainie Meshad, is the niece of Barbara and Vince Dooley and was raised loving all things red and black of the Georgia Bulldogs. And as a student at the university, Meshad would meet a young Georgia football player, a quarterback from Thomasville named Mike Bobo. “Mike and I met and dated all through college and, yeah, that’s how we met,” said Lainie, who graduated from UGA in 1996. The couple was married in 1999 and that union has today resulted in five children, ranging in age from nine to five. And today, of course, Lainie’s husband holds the title of Georgia offensive coordinator. On now being a coach’s wife with five youngsters, Lainie says: “Everybody’s got their kids and their thing they have to do so I think we just try to balance what we have, all of us do the best we can.” In the following question-and-answer session, Lainie Bobo gives the Bulldawg Nation a glimpse into her background and what it’s like being married to a football coach at a major university like Georgia: Years married, children?
We were married in July of 1999 so we’re at 12-and-a-half years now. Drew is our oldest and he’s nine. Then our triplets are Olivia, Jake and Ava Grace, they just turned seven. And our youngest is Kate and she’s five and a half. And Kate is our only fall baby so that was tricky for us. She was born at the end of September so there was a lot of planning when we were going to try induce and everything so Mike would be around. The most gratifying part of being married to a college football coach?
It’s a very fun, exciting lifestyle. We get to participate in a lot of things that other people don’t since we’re on the inside of Georgia football. And so it’s fun and we get to do a lot of really neat things that we probably otherwise wouldn’t get to do. The most challenging part of being married to a college football coach?
Mike is in a high profile, highly criticized position. We’ve talked about it often and I think a lot of times it’s harder on the family, the kids and the wives, because we hear more of that. He’s so entrenched in football he doesn’t often know what all is going on. And we know that it comes with the territory but that’s hard. I mean it’s just a crazy lifestyle. We’ve been fortunate to have stability here at Georgia but we know in general in this profession it’s not that way. It’s performance-based so you’re always worried about that – it’s stressful. Where did you grow up and what made it special?
I grew up in Sarasota. It’s beautiful and it’s home. I mean, my parents and my brother and my nieces, they all still live there. It’s the only home that I know. It’s a beautiful place to go back to occasionally, one of the most beautiful beaches I think in the country is there. It’s called Siesta Key and it’s always written up on the Travel Channel. They talk about it all the time and I grew up right there on that beach. I’ve taken friends there who haven’t been to the Florida Gulf Coast and they can’t believe it. The sand is like baby powder there. It’s so fine and light and it’s just beautiful. Other than rooting on the Bulldogs, what are some of your other passions?
I guess family, first and foremost. And I love running and playing tennis. And we like to play cards together. We have a great neighborhood so we do card and Cornhole championships with our friends and within our family, like with his parents and brother and sister-in-law. What do you like most about UGA and living in the Athens area?
I think Athens is such a great place to raise a family. It’s a great college town and there’s an amazing, supportive community within Athens. As a student, I didn’t even realize it existed because you’re just on campus and doing your thing but now, coming back, it’s just really great that people rally around you. It’s just a great, family-oriented community so we love it here. If your husband wasn’t a college coach, what career do you envision him having?
I can’t see him doing anything else but I guess it would be a high school coach. Because that’s what his dad George did and what he grew up around and I can see him being a high school coach as well. But really, I’m the same as Katharyn (Richt). Our husbands breathe, eat and sleep football. Your favorite UGA football moment?
The touchdown pass Mike threw to Corey Allen to beat Georgia Tech (in 1997 with 8 seconds to play) was awesome. And beating Florida that year as well was awesome because we hadn’t beaten them in so long. There’s so many it’s hard to say. Of course, every time we beat Florida is great for me because of growing up there. But I would also say one of my favorites was the 2002 season when we won the SEC because that’s the first big SEC championship we were a part of, so I would have to say that and the Sugar Bowl (win over Florida State). Just that whole year was wonderful.
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