Hannah Sharkey wrote a recent blog post about tragedy and the reality of tragedy. This blog post inspired me and I was reminded of my team and the support they give me. I believe that life is all about connections with people, and as tragedy happens we must come together.
There are so many struggles and adversities students go through while at college; we need a support system to survive it all. What about our administration, professors, and coaches? Yesterday at the end of a productive practice we gathered in a huddle to close practice. We do this after every practice as a ritual. Everyone is energized after practice because it’s our outlet. The huddle yesterday was different, my coach stopped us from laughing and had a serious face. Everyone looked around confused; we had a great practice. Are we in trouble? Completely vulnerable before the whole team, she started crying. We immediately knew what this was about. Coach recently lost her mom to cancer. She doesn’t talk about it often, because she wants to be strong for us. Coach told us she sold her childhood home recently. Yesterday was closing day of the house and she said her final goodbye with her sisters. She kept wiping her face and explaining how much she needed practice today. She had been crying all day and couldn’t wait for practice to cheer her up.
She thanked us for being her driving force to return to a better place. She wants to be better for us and our support means a lot to her. Now, I was wiping my face. We all have mothers and can relate. She took the time to connect to us and it felt so honoring. We all need each other. There’s no better feeling than having thirty girls and a coach who have your back. You feel indestructible, like you can take on anything. We spend so much time together: on buses, eating meals, at practice, game days, and tailgates with our families. My family at college is my team and they’re my support system. Yesterday I realized that coach needs us just as much as we need each other and it makes me want to work that much harder for her.
Related to teams coming together in tragedy; recently there was a tragedy on a junior hockey team. Sixteen members of the Broncos hockey team were killed in a bus crash. The crash happened at an intersection where a tractor trailer collided with the bus. It was an accident. Ages of the announced dead range as young as a 16 year old player to the 59 year old bus driver. Players who had a bright future ahead and loved ones are gone forever. When my team heard news, it really hit home. We’re often on buses, for times ranging from an hour to a whole day traveling to our games. It is so shocking that this could happen. I always have felt safe on bus rides. The Broncos’ coach and players gone too soon. It makes me ask questions like: why them, why so young, why on such an exciting day? Accidents happen and that could have been my team. I can’t imagine. I have a huge pit in my stomach thinking about it. How do you recover from that? My thoughts and prayers go to the team, and that they can recover from the horrific crash. Our time here is quick and fragile, so love your family while you can.