It's been some time since I've had the opportunity to update our blog. Today is the perfect day being I'm home sick and can't be at practice...
A few weeks ago our team had our annual retreat. It's meant to be a team bonding experience, which under this year's circumstances, our team could use a lot of. Our little freshman had no idea what was in store for them, but us upper classmen (all four of us) knew very well of Randy's reputation and realizes he has no limits. What Randy had in store for all of us was bound to be an adventure to say the least. Randy didn't fail us.
The team typically never knows exactly what's in store or how to prepare. The older players learn from past experience to be prepared for everything and anything. Us seniors kept reminding the younger girls to pack extra socks, underwear, hoodies, pants, and gloves because there is a chance you'll get wet and more thank likely it will be freezing! We knew we needed sleeping bags, there would be a roof over our heads, and that it was going to take about 3 hours to get there.
Welcome to Moab. Istantly in my mind, I started to antipate what exaclty Randy was going to have us do. Having a fear for heights, I was hoping it'd be anything else...but with Randy's track record it was bound to involve heights. Sure enough, as soon as we got there, we started on a hike through some beautiful red rock. It wasn't before too long, a huge arch presented itself from a distance. Yes, we were fortunate enough to be able to first climb up to the 170ft Corona Arch, and then repel down it. By the time I mustered up enough courage it was then dark. I'm not sure if that was better or worse....I like to think better... I couldn't look down even if I tried. As challening as that was for some of us, it was a breeze to others, but each of us completed the task, even the coaches. That wasn't the only repel we'd face during our weekend in Moab either...it was only just the beginning.
The remainder of our trip involved a sleepless night in a cob-web infested, abandoned trailer (atleast we had a roof over our heads I guess), mountain bike crashes and successes, miles of red rock hiking, and repelling down even more high cliffs. Different things challenged different people in different ways...some weren't fond of heights, whiles others weren't fond of riding a mountain bike up and down steep rock. Although it was a great mental challenge it was an amazing opportunity. Looking back at all we experienced it is something we willall cherish forever. It's not everyday those kinds of opportunites present themselves, unless you have the time and money to do so. Our team grew closer and got to know each other better. All in all it was a successful trip; my last, and probably my favorite.
After that trip, our pre-season practice started. Everyone has been working so hard and been putting in a lot of time to try and start our season out as a success. Since then, we've had one exhibition game...which we won. It wasn't pretty by any means, but we pulled it off. We have a lot of work to do and will definitely face a lot of challenges this year being so young and inexperienced. We face off our first real season game over at BYU this friday. Should be an interesting game. I imagine there will be a lot of personal emotions in the air and on top of competing with a well polished BYU team, we'll have our hands full. Right now we just need to keep our team healthy. While Asumi has been recovering from a sprained ankle, I've been plagued by the flu, which also got passed onto asumi. Both of us are feeling better and are on the up-swing.
BLAKE
A few weeks ago our team had our annual retreat. It's meant to be a team bonding experience, which under this year's circumstances, our team could use a lot of. Our little freshman had no idea what was in store for them, but us upper classmen (all four of us) knew very well of Randy's reputation and realizes he has no limits. What Randy had in store for all of us was bound to be an adventure to say the least. Randy didn't fail us.
The team typically never knows exactly what's in store or how to prepare. The older players learn from past experience to be prepared for everything and anything. Us seniors kept reminding the younger girls to pack extra socks, underwear, hoodies, pants, and gloves because there is a chance you'll get wet and more thank likely it will be freezing! We knew we needed sleeping bags, there would be a roof over our heads, and that it was going to take about 3 hours to get there.
Welcome to Moab. Istantly in my mind, I started to antipate what exaclty Randy was going to have us do. Having a fear for heights, I was hoping it'd be anything else...but with Randy's track record it was bound to involve heights. Sure enough, as soon as we got there, we started on a hike through some beautiful red rock. It wasn't before too long, a huge arch presented itself from a distance. Yes, we were fortunate enough to be able to first climb up to the 170ft Corona Arch, and then repel down it. By the time I mustered up enough courage it was then dark. I'm not sure if that was better or worse....I like to think better... I couldn't look down even if I tried. As challening as that was for some of us, it was a breeze to others, but each of us completed the task, even the coaches. That wasn't the only repel we'd face during our weekend in Moab either...it was only just the beginning.
The remainder of our trip involved a sleepless night in a cob-web infested, abandoned trailer (atleast we had a roof over our heads I guess), mountain bike crashes and successes, miles of red rock hiking, and repelling down even more high cliffs. Different things challenged different people in different ways...some weren't fond of heights, whiles others weren't fond of riding a mountain bike up and down steep rock. Although it was a great mental challenge it was an amazing opportunity. Looking back at all we experienced it is something we willall cherish forever. It's not everyday those kinds of opportunites present themselves, unless you have the time and money to do so. Our team grew closer and got to know each other better. All in all it was a successful trip; my last, and probably my favorite.
After that trip, our pre-season practice started. Everyone has been working so hard and been putting in a lot of time to try and start our season out as a success. Since then, we've had one exhibition game...which we won. It wasn't pretty by any means, but we pulled it off. We have a lot of work to do and will definitely face a lot of challenges this year being so young and inexperienced. We face off our first real season game over at BYU this friday. Should be an interesting game. I imagine there will be a lot of personal emotions in the air and on top of competing with a well polished BYU team, we'll have our hands full. Right now we just need to keep our team healthy. While Asumi has been recovering from a sprained ankle, I've been plagued by the flu, which also got passed onto asumi. Both of us are feeling better and are on the up-swing.
BLAKE
