Mandy's Musings
August 25, 2008
Preseason - Week 2
It's been a crazy week since the last journal entry! Bad weather cancelled 7 out of 10 of our much needed preseason training sessions. Fortunately, the sun is shining again and we are back to normal practice but our inexperience and slight fitness dilemma showed much more in our Sunday afternoon scrimmage than anyone would have liked. The score sounds much worse than the game actually was but that just shows how 3 minutes of laziness can completely change the outcome. On a positive note, everyone learned that if you give a good team any easy chance they will take it, put it in your net, and then continue to push just as hard for more chances. Sadly classes have begun today so it is down to one session a day and some fitness in the morning. Nothing better than waking up before the sun to get a good sweat in before our riveting airplane classes!! It will be a stressful semester as I am taking 18 credits instead of the usual 15 because I am attempting to graduate a semester early. I am hoping that this will give me a head-start into trying to becoming an air traffic controller. I don’t have nearly as much background knowledge as everyone else in my classes so for the first time in my life, I am that one person who asks a thousand questions that all my other classmates already know the answers to. Luckily I am part of the 9% female population at Embry Riddle so if I smile and bat my eyes they don't mind most of my inquiries ;)
One quality that I absolutely LOVE about my team is that fact that we don't take anything lightly. Some teams probably get together and have a picnic, paint each other's toenails, or maybe even a movie night. But not us. We are too competative for that. Our team bonding this year was a high intensity Olympic event held at that house of our super devoted fans....Coach's parents!! The house is warm and friendly and the food bowls are constantly refilling themselves everytime we visit. But of course this lovely house had to be disrupted this year by an invasion of the Chongas vs. Bench Warmers battle for the gold medals! The teams were split up odds vs. evens (our jersey numbers) and then we were told to make matching uniforms. To this team "uniforms" means face paint, pillows stuffed in pants, helmets, unibrows, really really big eyebrows, glue in hair, oh and matching shirts :) The two teams battled in pairs in fusbol, darts, pool, and the most intense game of Jenga you could ever imagine!! Do not EVER challenge our new goalkeeper Dina Roper to a game because she will make you want to be an armadillo if you know what I mean!! As a group we also played Scategories and Catch phrase, which is a personal favorite of mine. It is also a favorite of my dear friend Sarah Hirst and it is always best if we are on the same team because we both tend to get rather snappy when our teams are losing. Unfortunately the Bench Warmers walked away with the gold medals, but I have no regrets because the the silver medals were made of York Peppermint Patties and I prefer those over Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day!
Because of our shorter preseason I feel that the actual season is approaching much quicker than the past 2 years. We already have our first game this coming Sunday against William Carey. Last time we played them our mission was apparently to look like it was the first time anyone of us had seen a soccer ball. Now that the new coaches and players have all settled in, I cannot wait to start off with a bang (and a win)! No one wants the feeling that we left with last Sunday and with a whole week to get all our ducks in a row, I am more ready than anyone to be 1-0-0!
Shmandy...over and out
P.S. Hola to all my Chongas!!!!!
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TEAM CHONGAS
| THE BENCH WARMERS
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