Monday, August 14, 2006

New Preseason, New People, Old Tiredness

Last Wednesday the Union women's soccer team moved in to begin preseason. We had one of our fitness tests that night (which I failed miserably), then left Thursday for Camp Linden. The team trip was awesome; we have twenty-two new girls, thirty-six in all. I was glad I was a returning player, because I at least knew all the old girls. It took me a little bit to get all the names of the new ones. I'm still unsure about a couple of them. Anyway, most of the girls are really cool; I laughed so hard during the trip that my throat got hoarse! Haha. It was a blast. We did another ropes course (we did one last year), and that went well.

Saturday we had our first official practice. We will eventually be put into varsity and junior varsity teams, but for this week, we are just one big team. Saturday Coach split us up into four teams, and we scrimmaged. Each team played three games, so everybody got to play everybody. It went great; it was the perfect way to see each girl play. We have a lot of good girls, and I think we're going to have a good year. At this point I'm not real sure I'll make the varsity team, especially considering the fact that I now have a screwed up right knee. It started bugging me about a week and a half ago, but I thought it was something I had dealt with before and didn't think much about it. However, Saturday while I was running the mile and a half fitness test, it started hurting pretty significantly. Then it hurt in practice as well, but not that bad. Yesterday, it was killing me. I finally asked Joel - one of the trainers - to check it out, and he told me it was conjulation (spelling?). I think it's the knee cap or the cushioning under it getting rough and causing me a lot of pain. Joel also said something about calcium build-up, so I'm not real sure what's going on. The thing that really stuck in my mind and bothers me now is that he said, "It's one of those nagging things that take a while." I said, "Oh, that's great. Another one." My calves are doing good; they get tight, but nothing like they were. If my flipping knee wasn't messing with me, I could be doing great. However, it can't seem to be that easy.

There's one of the girls on the team that has really bad shin splints; they've bothered her for I don't know how long. I think it's been more than a year. Anyway, she has been told that there's really nothing they can do about it but just deal with it. And you know what? She does. I mean, if it gets too bad, she just drops out, but she gets back in as quickly as possible. I don't know if I could "deal with it." I'm going to have to deal with my calves, but it's not just intolerable. I don't know. I can't help but feel like I have a low tolerance for pain. Anyway...

Preseason days are so long. One day tends to feel like two or three at a time. We're busy, then we have a little downtime, then busy again, downtime, and so on. It's just crazy. It really messes with your internal clock. Haha. I still like it, though. I definitely don't like the running, but I still like preseason. There's just something about it. Although yesterday I thought it would be nice if my other friends from school were on campus. It's neat to have it to ourselves, but I just had the sudden desire to see somebody I knew walking down the sidewalk who is not on the team. This year is going to be fun.

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