Scrim-scrim-scree*

I don't have much time, I should really be in bed, but I am wound! up! from practice tonite. We scrimmaged with our team for the tournament this weekend - THIS. WEEKNED. as in Saturday. I'm going to be playing -- are you ready for this? Defense. I'm very excited, but a little nervous.  My partner is rad, we've been playing together and getting to know each other all season so we're going to do fine.

So our job(s) depending where our team is, are as follows:

• If we are in the offensive zone (the other team is trying to score) we hang back, one of us near a corner and the other near the goal. Stay outside the blue, diagonal of the pipes. Stay in a corner (of the oval rink, ha ha) and guard your gal. Make sure that no one near the goal or the corner gets the puck. That's our only job - oh, and make sure to either run it up the ice or hit it to one of our teammates.
• If we are in the defensive zone (we are scoring) we hang back at the blue line, make sure the puck stays in the zone and is playable - make sure our team gets the puck and makes a goal. Or make a goal. It's not completely out of the question that one of us could score a goal, but it's not our main job.

And that's it. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. We did alright during the scrimmage. My d-gal and I both had a huge learning curve since we hadn't played D, but coach Cal was really encouraging, answered our questions, and told us what we could do better next time without making us me feel like I had totally buggered it up. I really, really appreciate that. I also really need to hear it right away, before I forget what I've done. Tell me at the end of the period or the end of the game and I'm just gonna say "Uh, okay" because I won't remember it. My brain doesn't work that way.

One thing I noticed, when I am pressured by the other team I tend to throw the puck away without looking. Bad idea! Stop, take my time, look. I am going to be SO much more successful if I just look up and wait half a second. Also, my d-gal has quick reflexes and she's paying a lot more attention to more things than I am. I need to listen to her. And I need to talk to her, tell her what I'm doing too. In fact, I need to talk to them all, yell their names, keep them in the loop. Listen to them, they're trying to keep me in the loop.

I'm still feeling a little antsy about the whole thing, but it will be fine. I've had a few folks offer to let me ride over with them (which is cool) and it looks like I will be going on Friday (YAY) and our last game, if we make a championship game is on Sunday at 1215 so we should be home for dinner (double YAY)! However, we finally got winter, several inches of new snow, hopefully this storm just blows through and everything will clear up by the weekend.



*John Decker