That Feeling

I know for a few weeks now I’ve been talking about the hard times and the terrors of being a student athlete and all of it has been true. There are times when being an athlete is so frustrating I want to pull out my hair and scream. I know everyone must be asking themselves “Then why do you do it? Why not just quit?” Trust me, I ask myself that a lot, I’ve thought about the answer long and hard. Although it’s something that isn’t easy to describe, I’m going to do my best. 

It’s hard to explain because it’s a feeling, the best most wonderful unexplainable feeling in the world. The glory of winning, the confidence of running out to the field, the laughter you share with some of the best friends you will ever make. Playing a sport isn’t easy, you work non-stop, always breaking your body down, constantly tired but you do it for this feeling. The bragging rights after you’ve won a championship, you walk a little taller, smile more often and the world is just a little better. 

It’s honestly memories I’ll hold onto forever, the best one I have being the time my high school team won the New Jersey State Championship. It was the first time in the history of Indian Hills softball history that our team ever even made it to the finals, let alone won it. I was lucky enough to be the pitcher for this wonderful team and even more lucky to be the one up to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning in a 0-0 game, bases loaded. The most nervous I have ever been and probably will ever be in my life. I had a full count after fouling several pitches off and watching balls go by. The pitch came in... Ball four. I sprinted down the first bases line, touched the first base bag and turned to see my whole team running towards me. Dog pile. It was the happiest moment in my life. 

Some people ask me why I play a sport in college, being that it’s so hard and time consuming. I answer them with this; no matter how hard it gets, no matter how beat down, sore or exhausted I feel, none of the bad will ever out weight the good, the great, the fantastic, unexplainable feeling of winning for your team. 

On the Road Again

So this past weekend was the first of many overnight road trips with the softball team. Let me tell you there is nothing like 4 hours stuck in traffic on I-95 with 18 other people after playing 5 games in three days to make you wonder why you do this to yourself. Here are some tips for traveling on a bus full of softball player, or really any sports group:

• Bring sound canceling head phones- The best way to feel like you've escaped is to not hear anyone else's snoring, bad jokes, and whispers (which sometimes turn out to be a lot louder than you'd think)
• Bring a pillow and blanket- 2 reasons for this one; once you've put your head phones on you're gonna want to force yourself asleep (falling asleep in one city to wake up in another is the best, narcolepsy comes in handy.) The second reason is that for some reason no one can ever make up there mind on whether it should be hot or cold on the bus. So when we enter the bus it's stifling and 10 minutes into the trip, I'm looking for penguins as it seems we've entered Antarctica. 
• Bring a form of entertainment. Make sure your phone is fulling charged, bring a book, TRY to get some homework done. There is nothing more frustrating then when I let myself calculate the amount of hours of my life that have been spent on bus trips, knowing that I was wasting my time. When you can't fall asleep it's all the more evident, so bring a distraction. And pray to God you get a bus with WIFI.

Overall the best advice I can give is to just relax and try to zone out. Remember that you're lucky to be going somewhere different even if it's just for a few days. Some of the best memories I have with my team and friends are those on the road. When you start to feel like you've been on the bus so long that you're literally delusional just let it happen, be silly and laugh. That's what makes the trips bearable. Oh, that and dramamine.

Are you on the List?

Since last week I spoke about how beaten down my body is and how athletes are always pretty much broken, I thought this week would be a great time to give a shout out to those in charge of constantly fixing us. You would think, being that I am a college student “in the prime of my life” that I spend most of my life socializing at parties, drinking at bars, or maybe even being a good student in the library. Nope, I spend the majority of my free time in the athletic training room, with the people who are responsible for maintaining my physical health. 

Now this may not be true for every athlete here at Flagler, seeing as how I am definitely injury prone, I spend a lot more time in the training room than most. There are others like me, everyone knows who you are because as they walk into the training room you are already hooked up to a machine, getting ice, or being poked and prodded at by one of our three trainers. The trainers joke about who wins the award for most time spent with them. (I’ve been told I’m the 2011 winner. Thank you, thank you.) 

But even if you’re not an unlucky injury prone person like me, you’ll find yourself in the training room every so often. The newbies are the most fun to watch, worried about what injury they might have, confused about what a stem machine is. Then there are the regulars who know are probably doing leftover homework, gossiping and helping the trainers set up the machines we know all too well.

It may sound sad but I have a lot to thank the training room for; it’s made me better when I was sure I might never play again, it’s full of people who really know what they’re doing and because I spent up to three hours a day, every day of my freshman year in that room it’s actually helped me make a lot of the friends I have. The training room is like the athlete’s own little club house.