Sept. 27, 2005 In a recent e-mail from my cousin Andy, in good humor (I think), "While you and your team are having fun beating up on people and getting massages in Hawaii...your favorite youngest cousin is taking college seriously!" And I am quite sure he is, as a freshman at the very prestigious University of Virginia. I'm not one to brag, but he is an Engineering major and a Marine option, NROTC student, so he is busy. Well my dear cousin, the honeymoon is over, because in about thirty hours I will have to do what I actually came to college to do (I know it's surprising)...and that is, go to class. The last two months have been nothing but an endless, yet glorious, circle of practice, food, film, sleep, and large doses of fun inserted as needed. Wednesday, however, we add the "student" into the label student-athlete. I owe this enjoyable lifestyle to the fact that UW is on the quarter system, and the fall academic calendar doesn't start until the end of September. Most of my friends playing at other colleges have been in class for over a month, while my team and I have been able to focus solely on our athletics. I think this is a huge advantage for those of us competing in a fall sport, and it makes preseason a whole lot more fun. With that being said, starting this week, managing our schedules begins to get exponentially more difficult. A lot of people don't know what it is like being a student-athlete, so I am going to share with you my schedule on a typical Monday here at Montlake.
6:45: Breakfast (I always eat Grapenuts during the week...yum) Disclaimer: We don't lift weights every day. I have different classes everyday. We watch film a few times during the week as needed (but always on Monday), and a few nights a week (but it's different for everybody), and we have tutoring after dinner for an hour or two. But, given that my body and I are big fans of routines, I am actually looking forward to school starting. Last week, we had another great bus ride over to Pullman to play Washington State. We first watched Wedding Date, which was way cute and had good-looking men in it. Then we watched Beauty Shop, which had a lot of funny lines that we repeated throughout the weekend. And lastly, as we continued to drive through the farm lands, we watched a stand-up routine by Ellen DeGeneres. Our team has probably seen that at least ten times, but I think we laugh harder every time we see it. It was actually the first time the freshman had seen it- and we made sure they did just that. They were all asleep and Sanja, being the great team captain that she is, woke them up so they could better understand all these inside jokes the upperclassmen repeat all the time. I think they really enjoyed it, but I have yet to hear one of them quote the ingenious comedy that Ellen delivers...their time will come. Brie was sitting right in front of me, and I thought she was going to have an asthma attack she was laughing so hard. I think I laughed more at her than the show itself. Another thing that has made the last few trips even more fun than they usually are, are our two new additions- video cameras. Our team is funny, I'm not gonna lie, but there is something about putting a video camera in someone's face that brings out this untapped humor and is like a free pass to act like an idiot. It's awesome. There is never a dull moment with the tall purple women of UW. I would tell you a few funny moments, but I think they would all be the...well I guess you had to be there- so just trust me- we're having a good time. A good time off the court means we had a good time on the court. Playing at Wazzu is always fun because obviously they're our in-state rivals, but also because their gym is relatively small, and is therefore very loud; not to mention the student section is practically right on you. Their fans were funny. Most places are mean, but Wazzu's are loud and funny. Luckily for us, there is so much to think about during the match, we are distracted from actually hearing everything they say. The match was awesome. We executed the things that we worked on all week and I know I've said this before, but that is a great feeling. Playing on this team is great because we enjoy getting better, and we love that feeling of working, working, working, and then going out and putting it all together in a match. We practice so hard and so smart, and because of that, game time is nothing different- nothing special (other than we wear uniforms, and I usually get new headbands). The squad had fun playing on the other side of the mountains, but we were glad to be back for the football game on Saturday. It's a good feeling to have a solid win on Friday, and then get to relax and support another team as they battle. We cheered our hearts out Saturday, while basking in the warm sun and light breeze coming off Lake Washington, but it just wasn't meant to be for our football team this day. We watched film today (setters only and as a team), and then were back at it on the court. We have so much depth on this team, practice is insane, and today was no different. We worked hard, got better, and will do the same thing for the rest of the week. We have to, because the Pac-10 is legit. Every weekend is a battle and all you can do is play one day at a time. Here we go-Arizona's are coming to town. |
