Flying off the ice, the setting sun was peering through the huge lobby windows and shining on the ice. Normally after hockey, I want to sit down and take a nap on the wooden benches we get ready on, but today I threw my gear off to see if I had made the varsity team. Don’t worry, I’ll get my post-hockey nap in later. All of the other kids have gotten undressed and are waiting with me to see if they had made it. My friends and I were already talking about what numbers we want and how we are carpooling to hockey. When the coach puts up the list everyone acts calmly thinking coach will change his mind if he sees any glimpse of excitement out of us. Cruising up to the piece of paper, I scan name after name, Mcardle, Sena, Richards. I was as
SOI-The purpose of this creative piece of writing is an entry from one of our hockey games from tournament. I have tried to use a connection to compare battle or war to hockey, to make the story become more brutal and realistic. I have written in first person to show that it is in my perspective and what I recollect from the game.
The exceedingly loud rap music blasts my ears as I walk through the dressing room door. “Hey guys!” I holler as I dump my bulky bag on the floor. A teammate and I begin debating whether we have played against Spruce Grove before, and come to the conclusion that we haven’t. This makes me enthusiastic because it’s a fresh start. I put on my girdle and shin pads listening to the excited whoops of my team mates as they chat about the approaching game. My callused fingers throb in the process of yanking on my wax laces ensuring they are tight enough to confine my ankles. I promptly adjust my helmet while coach clarifies the plays and the techniques we’ll use to demolish Spruce Grove. “Let’s do this!” A teammate hollers as we exit the dressing room and step onto the ice. We do two half ice laps stretching our stiff muscles, then proceed to do four board rushes to get our heart rates going. The coach throws the rings onto the ice so we can begin our warm up passes and drills to prepare us for the game. The buzzer sounds, therefore we collect the rings and skate to the bench. “Brittney, Erin, Ella, Mack and Maggie,” Coach declares the
I walk into the rink and I see my teammates sitting in a circle not talking, just slowly eating their carefully planned out carbohydrate loaded breakfast. I sit in the circle and look around as they all give me reassuring looks. I say nothing as I slowly eat my bagel and raisons; I am just thinking about the task in hand. When everyone is done eating the coach orders us to the locker room. Twenty, young, determined hockey players file into the Shaker Raiders locker room, sit down quietly and patiently wait for the coach to make his speech.
As more of my teammates began to show up, I recognized most of them. However, I learned later that if I went on to play in the Spring, this would not be the same exact team I would play with. With only twenty minutes until we began,I put on all of my gear and my dad gave me a thorough warm up. Time seemed to fly by, and before I knew it, everyone was gathered together as positions were being assigned. I was originally overwhelmed with excitement, but as the game drew closer, the joy I had felt was replaced with anxiety. The lacrosse game taking place before ours ended and we entered and took our place on our bench. I recognized the opposing team’s jerseys quickly and identified them as a travel team from our area. Taking one final breath, I rushed into the lacrosse net enjoying my bird’s eye view, unsure of what was to
When I got home from school my Dad had me go get ready for a hour or two hour long drive. I got ready we got in the car and we started driving. On the way there I fell asleep in the car while we were driving. When I woke up we were in Chicago parked in front of the United Center. I got so exited I wanted to get in the stadium as soon as possible even though we we were an hour early. When we had gotten in with our tickets they were handing out free hats. After we went to go watch the BlackHawks practice. After watching the BlackHawks practice we went in a store to go get me a sweatshirt. When we got back to our seats the game was about to start. Then the game had started with the Toews wining the face off.
When the clock struck three, everyone was ecstatic because school was out for fall break, but my team was thrilled only because we were loading the bus for Albany, Ga to begin the Region softball tournament. On the way, the atmosphere on the bus was electric. The ride to Albany is generally short, but that day it felt like hours. Once we finally arrived, we were the first team there. I was excited and confident my team was going to get the two wins of the day, however things didn’t go as planned. We thought when entering the tournament ranked number one, teams feared us, but into the second game, we were quickly proven wrong when we lost to crisp county 5-2. Many of us were heartbroken and devastated, but we decided to learn from it. Our senior, Emily Corbitt said, “Even the best lose
Our coach called a timeout and showed us the game plan. We’ve done the play before and it was pretty tuff. As he called the players name by name I heard my friend Ryan and Luke get called, but not me. As the face-off was happening my adrenaline starts rushing. It just kept on rushing more and more. There was twenty seconds left in the game and Luke skates off the ice in a slowly fashion like there was no hope. The Ice Dogs push the puck into their zone and I rush onto the ice. As that is happening the huge kid takes a slapshot from the blue line and Ryan goes onto his knees and blocks the puck. The puck was rolling past the defense and it rolled right onto my stick. I watched the clock tick down as I had a wide lane ahead. It felt like
Walking in those familiar doors was the most terrific part of my day, no matter if it was a bright and early 6am practice or a late into the evening game. As soon as I entered the rink my favorite scent was all around me. It was the kind of perfect smell you cannot put into exact words, but it was a mix of something like ice, rubber and the sweaty socks of kids full of determination. The atmosphere was always the same there, full of excitement and anticipation. Growing up the rink was my happy place, I could always depend on it to be freezing cold, just the way I like it. Skating on the ice was an entirely different world. The boards were bright and clean, the benches were so huge I could barely see over them! The ice
Two seconds, that’s all it takes to change a game of hockey. As a student that grew up in Pittsburgh, I have loved hockey since I was little. It is a sport that makes me lose track of time. Hockey is captivating because players are practically skating on knives at ridiculous speeds, while holding a stick. At the same time, they are being checked and thrown into the boards. Doing this only to attempt to get a small rubber disk, traveling upwards of one hundred miles per hour, in a net covered by a goaltender.
The bus ride there, about an hour, was so fun, but all of them, being the boys they are, complained, “When are we gonna get there?!” and “Are we there yet?” When we did get there, we had a wonderful time! It was so cool to see all the amazing hockey players there were and what they had achieved in their careers to get them there. But, so many of the little boys, didn’t appreciate it as much as they should have. They all just wanted to go to the next thing, or buy this in the gift shop. We were there for these little hockey players to see what older ones could do and to set goals of making it to where those guys were one day-but they just took it all for granted. And I realize now that I did too, I was just like one of those boys.
My hockey career is like an ocean, has its waves but you just got to ride them out, challenges may come up but waves can’t always stay calm.
For thirteen years I have played the game of hockey. I have played hockey for more years in my life than I have without playing hockey, yet my career and favorite activity will soon come to an end. I have played with many different teams and many different players in my hockey career and I made sure to make memories with each and every moment. I have some of my best memories, as well as my worst while traveling for and playing hockey. Some teams have been great as well as the players, but the past three years have been the most memorable of them all.
“Mom and Dad I’m going to play field hockey.” My parents both looked at me with excitement and confusion. Confused to as why field hockey when I had been a cheerleader for eight years. Excited that I was stepping out of my comfort zone to try new things. I decided that cheerleading just wasn’t as satisfying as in once was. I heard such good things about field hockey and though it would be something I would like and be good at. Really how hard could it here? I came to realize on my third day of tryouts that I may have stepped too far out of my comfort zone. However, my coaches and teammates saw something special in me. The encouragement from my team and parents made me strive to be better each time I went to practice.
Friday night rolled around, it was the game we had all been working so hard for. Knowing we were seniors, we knew it would be the end of the journey.
I went to the first tryout pretty scared, I didn’t know how much competition there was going to be. Once I had arrived I met some new friends and I also met other people that I already had knew. Surprisingly, there was only 6 people that came to the first tryout… that wasn’t even enough for a full team. We still went on, we did some practicing with our dribbling and shooting, we spent about an hour and half doing the same thing over and over again. I was exhausted and it was time to go home. It was around 9pm and I was tired from all the running so I decided to take a nap on the car ride. After the car ride I went up to my room, changed, and