It’s A Slow Process, But Quitting Won’t Speed It Up

As I trade in my skates for my turfs and walk onto Duffy Field playing a sport so foreign compared to hockey, I have had a chance to really reflect on our season this past year. 

We didn’t finish the way we wanted, the famous words of so many. But when you set goals such as “Win 20” and fall short early in the season, it is tough to keep hanging on. That is what makes Saint Michael’s College Women’s Hockey such an inspirational program. Whether you look at the stats or not, to have a group of 26 girls fight through every day, wake up loving the sport just as much as before after facing so much adversity is amazing. What motivated each of us, is each other. How can one give up when you look around and see that motivation in the eyes of every teammate. The drive to keep at it, to want to continue to prove people wrong. 

Coach has always been a numbers guy, and when you break down the goals against, goals for, percentages, etc. we had a best season so far. But sometimes, numbers aren’t enough for us to hear. We want to win. We want to step off that ice with a good feeling. The unfortunate thing is that there is only so much in your control, and when the puck slides across paralleling the goal line, when the refs don’t call the game in your favor, all you can do is keep your composure and play your game. 

We had so many close games, by no means were we blown out. We held the top teams..Norwich & Franklin Pierce to three goals in the regular season. Our first tilt against Saint Anselm was a 2-1 loss with about 4 seconds left. Holy Cross we lost by 1 with about 28 seconds left and then turned around holding them to an OT tie. Knowing i’ll be going into my senior season makes me really uneasy. Where did the time go? How can I only have 26 games left of my college career? I am anxious to see what we make of it. 

Hockey is luckily not over for this year. I am excited to be able to head over to Prague this August to play for the North American Stars in the Czech Hockey Challenge Cup. I am super excited about this opportunity to be playing with some of the elite players from both the United States and Canada against some of the best players in Europe. As I have turned gears towards lacrosse, when the season comes to an end I have to make the effort to be the best player I can be and put on my training shoes to get back into hockey shape. 

Until next time, best of luck with the rest of the semester and with your spring seasons.