From the Eyes of a Rookie

After spending the summer working two jobs and playing minimal ultimate, I am extremely excited to be back in Ames for so many different reasons. Although not necessarily ready to start classes, I cannot wait to be within walking distance from all of my teammates.  

This coming year is going to be a lot different than last. I am so excited that I have the opportunity to play with most of the same ladies as last season. I am also extremely sad that Love, Jessy, and Jazz will not be playing with us, but these feelings are overcome with thankfulness that I was able to play my first year with them. 

My first year for Woman Scorned was more that I could even begin to explain. I grew as a person and a player. I was able to play at college nationals, a tournament that some players only dream of competing at. More important to me however was the way that Woman Scorned made it to nationals. As a team we were always confident that we could do it, but I will admit, some days I was unsure. It seemed that our spring semester started out a little rough while we tried to figure out what worked for us. We had the talent and the determination, it was just a matter of getting our players to work together to reach our true potential as a team. In my opinion that was the greatest part of our season, the fact that we truly spent all season trying to figure out what worked, and what didn’t. We were never satisfied with how we played, we constantly worked to improve our offense and defense, and never stopped until nationals was over.  

Two specific games this year stick out to me as games that Woman Scorned never gave up. Before these games, I don’t think I truly knew what it was like to play every minute of a game. They are the Wisconsin game at regionals, and the Iowa game at nationals. Both were games I can’t remember specific points, but both are games I will never forget.  The heart and desire that our team showed during these games made the win at regionals that much more exciting, and it made it impossible to be mad about the loss to Iowa.

Although I am excited to play with Woman Scorned again, I think I am more excited to be back in Ames. As a rookie I was able to experience so many firsts with Woman Scorned, and I don’t know what I would have done without them. There are so many off the field experiences from the last year that I couldn’t trade for anything. From “breakfast for dinner” at Hogwarts, to nature walks at Ledges, long car rides, being a sober cab, WS Thanksgiving dinner with turkey ball, Vagfests, rookie dinners, intramural basketball, broomball, and volleyball, library parties, snack attack, gchatting, class, gchatting in class, email threads, and sneaking upperclassmen into the dining centers; everything was amazing. I don’t think there was a day that went by that I didn’t spend time with at least one member of Woman Scorned.  As a rookie, having 18 other girls to ask questions about anything from classes to on the field questions was an incredible resource.

Now as I get resettled into Ames and start recruiting and planning for the upcoming season, I realize that I have to pass my rookie status onto the next class of recruits-A new crop of people who will have their own first season, hopefully filled with similar stories, and experiences that I was so lucky to have experienced myself.