Day 18 - Sleepyhead, Captain's Bowling Practice, Hometown Support, Catharsis
Tina and I slept through breakfast, only to be woken up by someone telling me I should be at a backs meeting. It was 10am at that point and when I got down there the backs were playing the game of "guess-who's-written-on-a-post-it-on-my-forehead". After that, we talked a little bit but nothing substantive. I later realize that Keenya was trying to get a sense of how the backs were feeling in general.
After that, jumped back into bed and made a feeble attempt at reading. It quickly turned into a 2 hour nap. Lunch was more of the same (we're getting tired of chicken!) but they always have my favorite comfort food, toast and butter, available for lunch and dinner, so I shouldn't complain.
After lunch, we packed our bags for a captain's practice (run through at the field), but Ashley correctly deduced that something was amiss from the fact that forwards were supposed to wear our red shirts and the backs to wear white shirts. I was in a bit of a conundrum in deciding which to wear, but since fwds protect the SH all game and are good allies to have, I had to choose the red shirt. Forwards have that "pack pride" mentality and would be excited if I joined their ranks (backs don't really care about that stuff). We get into the vans and although we don't really know how exactly to get to the fields, we all recognize that we're driving away from St. Albert's. We pull into the local bowling alley and everyone is psyched. With our bowling shoes on (and my vortex suit on), we proceed to bowl 2 fun games. I was bowling with Ham, Carter (who managed to still bowl with a broken finger!), Cox, and Kelly McMahon. Ham and Ellie (the dark horse of bowling) bet on the second game and I think they decided they would both buy each other a shot at the end of the tour.
When we came back home, Annie called the NY players into her room to open a huge care package. I can never get over how thoughtful our NY teammates are! It was filled with cards for each of us, stickers, crossword puzzles, silly putty, waterguns, and other wonderful stuff to brighten our day. In addition to the care package, numerous "good luck" emails, and the 20+ players that came up to Edmonton to support in person, the NY team put together some video cheers while they were playing at Pumpkinfest this weekend for us!
Check them out on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYX8F2eSEBU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGRYxnyeQv8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uud3JIpt6lY
I can't say how blessed we are to have such wonderful hometown support and such amazing teammates (that can also do the worm!).
Dinner was followed by the jersey ceremony, which was followed by an impromptu team meeting. We sat in a bit circle of chairs with Crouse and Keenya starting the discussion with the observation that there was some negativity or "dark cloud" overhead that we should talk about. After some initial banter we decided to go around the room and just say how we were feeling. I started off the circle by saying that I didn't really feel the dark cloud but could see that some of my teammates were upset; different people deal differently with certain issues and require personal space and time, but hopefully we can move on as a team. Personally, the selections allowed me to reflect on how much I wanted to fully appreciate the people around me, on and off the field, regardless of playing time.
It became obvious that the selection announcement yesterday in front of everyone and then going straight into practice caused some of the tension. For most people, it's difficult to accept bad news and then not have much personal space to deal with it. Everything about being on tour is very public, especially since we're in close quarters and working with each other every day. It's amazing that we've gone for more than 2 weeks and this was the first team glitch that we've had.
As we went around the circle talking about what we were feeling, we came to realize that we all truly cared about each other and cared about the idea of "Team". The comments from "PermaMelons" (aka non-rostered reserves that traveled to Edmonton with us and are permanently on the defensive "Melons" team) were especially tear-inducing with their selfless dedication to helping the team. I don't typically cry much at meetings, but the waterworks came as Pam was talking about how much she loved playing with us and how the support of everyone, especially those not starting is empowering. In Pam's words, " When I step on the field with you guys, I feel like Superman". Her comment is right on - I realize that I was nervous up until the time I stepped on the field during the Ireland match a week ago, but when that whistle blew I knew my teammates were with me and it gave me a serene feeling of confidence.
The best thing about a talk like this is that everyone can see what each person is feeling and it's no longer a mystery. Getting it all out there is the most important thing and in this case, the process is the solution. By understanding the emotions going around, we could appreciate where everyone was coming from and could see how much we are truly invested in this team.
In my experience with team meetings, very few discussions are as successful as this one was. It was cathartic, honest, open, and removed some of the imaginary barriers that may have come up in the last two days. At the end of the meeting, we did a "cinnamon roll" hug where the first person rolled into their neighbors like a swirl until the 30 of us were facing in, smooshed with each other (Laura MacDonald went home, otherwise it would be 31).
Dark cloud be gone!
After that, jumped back into bed and made a feeble attempt at reading. It quickly turned into a 2 hour nap. Lunch was more of the same (we're getting tired of chicken!) but they always have my favorite comfort food, toast and butter, available for lunch and dinner, so I shouldn't complain.
After lunch, we packed our bags for a captain's practice (run through at the field), but Ashley correctly deduced that something was amiss from the fact that forwards were supposed to wear our red shirts and the backs to wear white shirts. I was in a bit of a conundrum in deciding which to wear, but since fwds protect the SH all game and are good allies to have, I had to choose the red shirt. Forwards have that "pack pride" mentality and would be excited if I joined their ranks (backs don't really care about that stuff). We get into the vans and although we don't really know how exactly to get to the fields, we all recognize that we're driving away from St. Albert's. We pull into the local bowling alley and everyone is psyched. With our bowling shoes on (and my vortex suit on), we proceed to bowl 2 fun games. I was bowling with Ham, Carter (who managed to still bowl with a broken finger!), Cox, and Kelly McMahon. Ham and Ellie (the dark horse of bowling) bet on the second game and I think they decided they would both buy each other a shot at the end of the tour.
When we came back home, Annie called the NY players into her room to open a huge care package. I can never get over how thoughtful our NY teammates are! It was filled with cards for each of us, stickers, crossword puzzles, silly putty, waterguns, and other wonderful stuff to brighten our day. In addition to the care package, numerous "good luck" emails, and the 20+ players that came up to Edmonton to support in person, the NY team put together some video cheers while they were playing at Pumpkinfest this weekend for us!
Check them out on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
I can't say how blessed we are to have such wonderful hometown support and such amazing teammates (that can also do the worm!).
Dinner was followed by the jersey ceremony, which was followed by an impromptu team meeting. We sat in a bit circle of chairs with Crouse and Keenya starting the discussion with the observation that there was some negativity or "dark cloud" overhead that we should talk about. After some initial banter we decided to go around the room and just say how we were feeling. I started off the circle by saying that I didn't really feel the dark cloud but could see that some of my teammates were upset; different people deal differently with certain issues and require personal space and time, but hopefully we can move on as a team. Personally, the selections allowed me to reflect on how much I wanted to fully appreciate the people around me, on and off the field, regardless of playing time.
It became obvious that the selection announcement yesterday in front of everyone and then going straight into practice caused some of the tension. For most people, it's difficult to accept bad news and then not have much personal space to deal with it. Everything about being on tour is very public, especially since we're in close quarters and working with each other every day. It's amazing that we've gone for more than 2 weeks and this was the first team glitch that we've had.
As we went around the circle talking about what we were feeling, we came to realize that we all truly cared about each other and cared about the idea of "Team". The comments from "PermaMelons" (aka non-rostered reserves that traveled to Edmonton with us and are permanently on the defensive "Melons" team) were especially tear-inducing with their selfless dedication to helping the team. I don't typically cry much at meetings, but the waterworks came as Pam was talking about how much she loved playing with us and how the support of everyone, especially those not starting is empowering. In Pam's words, " When I step on the field with you guys, I feel like Superman". Her comment is right on - I realize that I was nervous up until the time I stepped on the field during the Ireland match a week ago, but when that whistle blew I knew my teammates were with me and it gave me a serene feeling of confidence.
The best thing about a talk like this is that everyone can see what each person is feeling and it's no longer a mystery. Getting it all out there is the most important thing and in this case, the process is the solution. By understanding the emotions going around, we could appreciate where everyone was coming from and could see how much we are truly invested in this team.
In my experience with team meetings, very few discussions are as successful as this one was. It was cathartic, honest, open, and removed some of the imaginary barriers that may have come up in the last two days. At the end of the meeting, we did a "cinnamon roll" hug where the first person rolled into their neighbors like a swirl until the 30 of us were facing in, smooshed with each other (Laura MacDonald went home, otherwise it would be 31).
Dark cloud be gone!
posted by Lee Knight at 10:47 PM
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