Traded...Go Stars!

The Uncle Sam sorting hat traded me today to the Stars team. I’m not going to fib or put on airs, I was a bit disappointed at first…at first. This week, I’ve formed some bonds with my Stripes teammates, and it was a little blow to my emotional self to have to switch teams. However, in the grand scheme of USA Rugby, we are all teammates, and it didn’t take long for my emotional self to embrace the change. Actually, I like that I will get to play with the Stars. I’ll get to see how well I play with some other players and hopefully help the Stars avenge the last two games. Wouldn’t it be awesome to be one of like three players (two others were traded as well) to go 3-0 for the week?

On another note, today was a chill sort of day. We only practiced once and so had a lot of down time. The Stripes took that time to have a water balloon fight, while the Stars had a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament. I lost in the second round to the Kug, who finished second behind Poker-Face-Megan Bonny (another Stripes transfer), who said of her victory, “I wasn’t trying to win.” Megan and I also wiped the floor with my VA buddy, Erica, and Penn State’s scrumhalf, Elena, in pool. In two games, I don’t think they made enough shots to win a single game.

The day is winding down now. I’m still on the Stripes side of the dorm and they’re preparing for the match by watching Top Gun and Dirty Dancing (side note: Nugget and I did the Dirty Dancing lift earlier this morning). Nobody puts Baby in the corner.

Wait...What Day Is It...

Day 5…6…er something…is nearing a close. What day is it anyway? Thursday? I’m in a Rugby Time Warp right now. It feels like we’ve been at camp for weeks now. Days bleed into days and time is measured in weigh ins, feedings, sessions, meetings, ice baths. I’ve taken my heart rate five times now, weighed in 14, had three ice baths, and have consumed enough calories for two or three people (depending on their size and disposition toward doughnuts). I hope this is what heaven is like…or hell (depending on the final destination of my hand basket).

I felt a little beat up today, which of course is inevitable after a match day. It’s a good feeling…or a horrible feeling, depending on your level of masochism. I think rugby players are all masochists to some extent and so relish in post-match pain, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. A seed must break its shell before a plant can grow.

Philosophical ramblings aside, the second match was a physical one. One that left me physically exhausted—I’m talking fatigue-delirium. I enjoyed every minute of it. I felt that I played one of the most active games I’ve ever played, and my teammates voted me forward of the game. That is an honor, not because it represents a personal triumph (we play for ourselves, of course, because we love the game and the person the game makes us), but because we play for our teammates. When we’re on the pitch we are committed to 14 other people. We strive and push ourselves to our breaking points for those people, and to have those people appreciate my effort has made my time here worth it, regardless of win-loss records, regardless of selections.

On a less serious note, a few things that have helped me prepare for the intense rugby here at camp have been the quotes on my Celestial Seasonings teas (the one I got before our match was, “On with the dance, let joy be unconfined,” and I kept thinking throughout play, “Let’s dance, baby.”), our strength and conditioning guy, Paul, saying that his goal was to help us be athletic and happy (what could be more simple and more awesome than being athletic and happy), and the sloth slaps I’ve been getting from Kmiecik (you don’t need to know what that is, just know that it helps).

That’s all for now. Check back in tomorrow for more of my insights (if you want to call them that) and updates.

Snakes and Sorcerers

We’ve been at camp for a couple of days now and there has been no sign of the Masonic band members as of yet (for those who don’t get this reference, there was a Masonic band camp here at UNCo last year). This means that we’re the only kids in the cafeteria. It also means no awesome American flag button up shirts and no sacrificial chicken jokes. Eh, we’re still having fun.

We had our first scrimmage yesterday, and the Stripes (that’s the team I’m on) won. No offense to the Stars, but the Stripes also win in the Lounge Decorating Contest. I mean we have streamers and a frog throwing dart board area…and mother fu**ing snakes. Actually, we don’t have real snakes (that little blog outburst stemmed from a lively game of Cards Against Humanity), but we do have one long rubber worm-looking thing with tentacles.

Thus far, I think I’ve had more fun at this camp than any other I’ve been to. Granted, I have only been to a handful of National Team camps, but this one has trumped the others, so far, for me. I think it’s partly due to the fact that it mimics a tour—we’re playing and preparing to play instead of doing drills and skills sessions all day. Now, there’s nothing wrong with drills and skills, but we do that stuff to prepare us for the good stuff, for the matches, and that’s what this camp is all about. I feel my level of enjoyment is also a product of my attitude going into this camp. I feel a lot more confident and less nervous—more like I belong and less like I’m feeling around in the dark to find my place. I feel like a mother fu**ing sorcerer (yes, another reference to Cards Against Humanity). 

That’s all I have for now. Day three is in the books, and I’m ready to do some tactical breathing and fall gently off to dreamland.

A Few Thoughts on Time at the Top 60 Camp

I feel like I haven’t blogged in a million years. There have been matches, tournaments, rugby news, and random happenings between my last blog and now, and I’ve just not blogged about any of it. I’ve told myself that I haven’t had time, and that’s not quite the truth. The whole truth is that I haven’t made it a priority. It’s not that I haven’t had time—I have—or I haven’t made the time—you can’t make time. It’s that I haven’t utilized the time I have to do it.

I’m addressing all of this, because I’m at the Women’s National Team’s top 60 camp at the moment, and for the past three months or so, I’ve been utilizing my time for rugby training. I have been going balls to the wall—two-a-days, three-a-days, no rest for the weary type of shit (CT Fletcher: “You worried about overtraining?...You worried about working, mother fu**er”). I feel great—awesome—and I’ve found that time isn’t a tough thing to work with if you know what you want. Now, I’m utilizing my down time here at camp to blog a bit. And the thing is, if you really think about it, there’s always time for the things you want—the things that are going to make life harder if they didn’t exist in your daily existence.

Ok, now that I’ve gotten all inspirational speaker on you, I’ll just say one more thing and I’m out. I’m so excited to be around my fellow freaks again, and I can’t wait to bash some heads!!