Thankful for Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving break is a weird time for winter sports athletes. As mentioned in my prior blogs, I usually don't go home for the entire Thanksgiving break. We play a game two days prior to Thanksgiving and two days after the holiday. Thus, we stay on campus to practice and play games.

This year, I decided to go home after our Saturday practice. It was an easy decision for me this time because I was mentally exhausted. The entire week of classes and practice drained me. Thankfully, we practiced early in the morning, so I made it home by lunch. My family knew I needed all the love in the world. My twin brother took me to dinner at the new Raising Cane's location in my area. We waited almost an hour for the food, but I enjoyed spending time with him. He is my best friend, but as we have grown older, our lives have taken us in different directions. To my surprise, my younger brother begged me to take him out for ice cream. He took control of the music in my car and asked for me to drive to see the decorated houses. I spent just over a day at home, but I felt like a new person when I left. 

My teammates made comments about the change in my body language and attitude when I returned. They knew I needed a weekend home with my family. I was refreshed and ready to play our game against Ohio Wesleyan on Tuesday. The hard truth about athletics is it doesn't matter how good you are if you don't show up. We didn't show up at our home opener. It was embarrassing to lose how we did, but it might have been a blessing in disguise. Many of us went home for the holiday angry. The last idea I wanted on my mind was losing. Every time one of my relatives asked how our season was going, it pained me to tell them we dropped our home opener. 

When we came back from our two days home, we knew it was time to work. On Saturday, we played Trine who is ranked 8th nationally. My mindset going into the game was clear. I wanted to play my hardest and see where we stood with a top competitor in the nation. We played tough and hard. In the end, we came out on top. It made me realize how the loss Tuesday was a huge learning lesson for us. You can't show up and be great. You have to be intentional with everything you do or else you will be exposed. 

Saturday is our first conference game at home against Marietta. I hope to see all of you in the crowd for the men's and women's games!