As I took to the field for our first game of our 2010 season this past weekend I could not help thinking about preseason. The 9 days of intensive conditioning, three a day practices (yes that’s right … 3 a days), sweltering temperatures on the turf, cold whirl pools, and a soreness that can’t fully be comprehended unless you have experienced it. Everyday tasks like getting out of bed, getting dressed, and even sleeping all felt impossible, and yet even while our bodies were in such intense pain, we somehow found a way to make it back out to the field for the next session. Our fans didn’t see the hard work that we put in during camp and neither did our opponents, but together we worked, struggled, and survived all to make it to this moment, when the referee blows the whistle and our season begins.
My name is Courtney Tobe, and I am a senior from Louisville, Kentucky, on Davidson College’s field hockey team. I have officially survived four D.C.F.H. preseason’s (something I never thought I would be able to say), and I have never felt as proud of the work that we put in during preseason as I do right now because we had an amazing opening weekend.
The weekend started out with a seven and a half hour long bus ride to our nation’s capital. Seven and a half hours is a long time to be on a bus, but we managed to pass the time pretty easily with an impromptu J.Lo movie marathon, good conversation, and a lot of snacks. Although there were moments when the bus ride felt like it would never end, the trip was definitely worth it. We brought home two wins, a 5-0 win against Bryant on Friday and a 5-0 win against St. Francis on Saturday, and we had an amazing crowd turn out for the games.
One of the great things about D.C.F.H. is the amount of support we get from our fans. We had several parents make the trip to D.C. and two D.C.F.H. ’09 alums, Sara Stevens, and Tyler Kirkland came out to show their support. To top things off, Darrel Young, a RB/LB for the Washington Redskins made an appearance at American University to watch our games and cheer for the Davidson Wildcats (all of the Davidson Dad’s were extremely excited about this one). The weekend was a great way to kick off our season and has really inspired us to work hard this week in practice.
We have a lot of potential as a team and a lot of goals that we have set for ourselves this season. The next step we have to take toward reaching them comes this weekend with two games. We open up at home on Saturday against Towson at 12 p.m., and play Lafayette at Wake Forest on Sunday. These are two really good match-ups for us and we can’t wait to hopefully add two more W’s to our record.
Throughout our season, I’ll be checking back in with game updates, funny stories, player interviews, and much more. Keep following along for more behind the scenes D.C.F.H. moments and please come out and show your support on Saturday! Go Cats! – Tobe #7
