As winter approached, my parents constantly bothered me about choosing a winter sport. Because I was only in the sixth grade, my options for sports within the middle school were basketball, dance, or cheerleading. Luckily, I thought outside of the box and suggested hockey to my parents, even though my school did not have a team. A couple of my friends who played for the Mandan Hockey Club had helped me convince my parents to let me give it a try. The next week I was already learning to play hockey with my friends who were on my team.
I created many great memories with my best friends and had a lot of fun throughout my years of hockey adventures. Because I only knew about five girls on my team right away, I was very quiet during my first couple years of hockey. I just wanted to learn the game first, then worry about talking to people later. For example, I would only talk when I had questions for my coaches or when I had something funny to say. I wanted to make a good first impression on my team, so during the limited moments I spoke, I just wanted to make my teammates laugh.
While some girls were my age or younger, most were older than me. I wanted to make these girls laugh the most because I wanted them to like me. I guess I could say | was definitely one of their favorites because I was both shy and funny. During my years with the Mandan Hockey Club, my team did a great amount of traveling. I think my parents drove me in our silver van across almost every town in North Dakota. This brought great opportunities to me such as getting out of the house quite often and getting fresh air while visiting the different towns.
These days, it is not uncommon for my parents to bring this up whenever I ask for something they do not feel like doing at the moment. For example, if I ask to go out to eat somewhere in Bismarck, my mom will bring up all the times we went out to eat while traveling during my club hockey years. Although I greatly appreciate it now, I never realized during those years how much my parents sacrificed for me. They would take off work almost every week in order to take me to my hockey tournaments and games out of town.
Another great component of my hockey adventures were the overnight weekends in hotels when we had games early in the morning the next day. During these overnight stays, my team and I would have a blast whether we were all hanging out in the same hotel room or just simply walking around in the hallways. For instance, the whole team would congregate in one of the older girl’s rooms and we would laugh together and share stories for hours until it was time to go to bed.
If we were not gathered in one’s room or lounging around the lobby together, we were usually goofing around in the pool or relaxing in the bubbly hot tub after a tough game. The only dreaded part of my hotel adventures was checking out because that meant my team would have to split up and head home. Although I learned the importance of friendship within a single team, the game of hockey itself taught me many important lessons. Throughout the years, I also learned the importance of working hard together and being a good sport no matter what happens.
After a tough game, my coaches and teammates would always shake hands with the other team and say “good game” no matter what the outcome happened to be. We also learned to be proud of ourselves no matter what the scoreboard showed. Sometimes it was hard to keep our heads up after a tough loss, but our parents would always make us feel better by giving bear hugs after the games. Moving up to high school hockey was both exciting and ul. One reason it was exciting was because I was moving up with my friends in the same grade as me.
As long as we moved up together, we knew we would be all right after all. Our new coaches were extremely welcoming by explaining every drill thoroughly and always asking if we had questions about anything during practice. I usually had many questions to ask, and for once, I was not afraid to ask them. I knew my new team was accepting of my friends and I because they helped us as much as possible and showed us the ropes by demonstrating new ideas and drills during practice. This made the adjustment simpler and stress free, all thanks to the older high school girls | looked up to.
For the past two years, it was my turn to show the younger players the ropes. I did everything I could to be a great role model and help them whenever then were in need. Most young girls called me the “mother” of the team because I would always make sure they were feeling all right and knew what was going on around them. I would be sure to cheer them up after a bad shift during a game and cheer them on after scoring their first high school goals. Being a role model for my younger teammates was a great feeling I was extremely lucky to experience.
With this year being my senior year, I knew my high school sports would sadly have to come to an end. This is a situation dreaded by most high school athletes because memories with teams, coaches, and competition cannot be replaced. To me, there is nothing like being involved in a high school sport and being able to hang out with an amazing team almost every day. It will be hard to let go of this aspect of my high school years, but I am very thankful to have gotten the chance to be a part of a team in the first place. During this last weekend, I played my last games in my last state tournament.
I said goodbye to my last high school team, coaches, and sport in general since I do not play a spring sport. This was a hard deed to accomplish because it was sad to think about never being on the same team again doing the same things we used to do. While stepping out onto the ice one last time, my team and I went out with a bang as we took third place in my last state tournament. This was quite unexpected of our team, but it was definitely not impossible. As we were all proud of what we had accomplished, my good friend and fellow senior on the team refused to set down the trophy we had received as a team.
One idea that helped me get through the weekend was the thought that everyone must move on and grow up eventually. Although it was hard to say goodbye to a sport that has been a huge part of my life, I am very thankful for all the fun memories I created while going through the process of playing hockey. I will never forget the people I meet and the great friendships I made along the way. While playing a fun sport with friends and classmates, I now realize I was also learning lifelong lessons that make me part of who I am today: a good sport and a great friend.