CIS Women’s Soccer Championship Blog – Day 4

LANGLEY, B.C. – A Rookie Perspective

We awoke to the pitter-patter of the rain on our hotel windows. We found our daily present outside our door, which consisted of PowerAde, Dasani, rice chips a book on soul searching and the new testament. Then we ate breakfast around 9:30am, and prepared for a day out on the town.

We were soon faced with an ultimatum. Go up on a gondola through the mountains, where our vision would surely be impaired, or go to Vancouver Island. We left it to a vote, where Vancouver Island was victorious (like we were in the quarterfinals). Crazy enough we didn't go to either destination, looking to our ridiculously good-looking manager, D.T. Rossi, to call up his people to make it a good day; we ended up going to Capilano's suspension bridge, where we enjoyed the majestic Mountain View and delicious fudge. Although it was raining the entire time, it didn't dampen our spirits. The adventure began with a rickety walk across a suspension bridge, good thing it was raining out to make it extra slippery! From there we were able to explore the wilderness along dirt paths and other suspension bridges. We concluded the trip with a stop to the gift shop, where we all bought the standard souvenir, glassware, and of course some delicious fudge.

We ventured home in our fleet of mini-vans, where we lost Steph Whites red-sparkly van. Lucky for us, D.T. Rossi came to the rescue, called his people and was able to find them, and direct them to Sandman Hotel (our hotel) safely and out of harms way. We then had time to find our own lunch. Where, us rookies indulged ourselves in sushi, bagels, sandwiches and pitas, all healthy of course, since we have a game tomorrow.

We then enjoyed some quality free time, where we all caught up on sleep, homework and team bonding. We then had our daily team meeting in Coach Charles' room, where we discussed the previous game and some tactics going into tomorrow's big semi final game. Being a Brock Badger, we have constantly been faced with adversity. Coming into this tournament we were seeded 8th out of 8 and no one was really giving us a chance. Out of 200 votes cast on the CIS web pole on who would win the tournament only 10 were dedicated to us. However, as a team we have rose above all the adversity and expectations and became this years Cinderella story (hopefully, it's a happily ever after ending!).

Coach John told us “luck is the point where opportunity and hard work meet” we found this to be very inspirational, as we as a team have found that nothing comes easy or is just handed to us, that we have always had to work for our success. Then we were graced with the presence of our athletic director Lorne Adams. He expressed how proud he was of us, and gave us confidence going into tomorrows game. Sherri-Leigh then told us how we were the most dangerous team to play, because we are truly a unit that works together as one and always has each others backs. After this discussion we went out for a team dinner to Montana's. Where we once again indulged ourselves in complex Carbs to prepare for tomorrows game. We came home to the hotel and began to settle down and get ready for bed. Curfew is at 11pm and it is now 10:58pm so we best get going! Blog you tomorrow… Rookies on three… 1, 2, 3, ROOKIES!!!

Rookies… out!