Last Week As a Student-Athlete

Lacrosse.

I began playing in 9th grade. I had no intention of playing past that year. Then I got an invitation to go to a skills camp. It seemed odd, but I decided to go to the camp and see how I felt after the summer. It was at some school I only knew because the Pittsburgh Steelers training camp takes place there. Saint Vincent College and Coach Harbert showed me skills I would have never learned otherwise. It was how my love for the sport began. Little did I know that I had entered into a world where there was no escape. The following three years, I earned awards and honors all over the place for my lacrosse playing.

College Choices.

During my Junior season and the summer following, coaches were calling me left and right. I knew I wanted to go to school, I knew I wanted to go to school for Journalism/Mass Communications. I realized there was no way I was going to go to college without playing lacrosse. I looked at quite a few schools based on their lacrosse program (Lycoming College, Gannon University, Lockhaven, etc.)

But then I looked at schools based on their academics and lacrosse team. So I applied to Saint Vincent College, Mercyhurst College, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and finally Saint Bonaventure University. I secretly hoped I wouldn't get into one or two to help with the decision-making process, but apparently I fit the criteria for all of them. I was accepted to all four schools. 

I loved Saint Vincent. It was my home, where my love began. Mercyhurst was literally home, I live 6 minutes away. IUP seemed perfect as well, and the coach was amazingly helpful in my decision process. But in the end I chose Saint Bonaventure University. It was a small Division-I school about an hour and a half from home. 

St. Bonaventure Women's Lacrosse.

The place is perfect, I love everything about it. Right down to the thousands of sprints I had to do over the years. Lacrosse was always tough, as I had expected. It has been hard waking up at 5:21 in the morning to make it to 6 o'clock practice. Worse when we had practice from 8 to 10 at night then again at 6 the next morning. Lifting was hard, it seemed like you couldn't push the bar up any higher but then you do. Every sprint was torture. But you go through it because you love the sport. Because you know that each one will make you that much faster in a game. Every bruise and scar has a story. Every lifting session made you that much stronger than your opponent.

But the best part about lacrosse: the team. I have met my best friends on this team. More than that, going into school I had a built in group of friends that loved me no matter what happened. I had their backs and they had mine. I cant even begin to tell stories about my friends. The games, the hotels, the swimming, bus trips, Freshman Idol, the Mountain, etc. Everything with them made pushing through sprints worth it. 

Bitter and Sweet.

That being said, after 8 years of lacrosse almost 365 days a year, I am ready to be done. It will be extremely sad on Sunday when I say my final goodbyes to the only thing that keeps me sane and gives my world a definite structure. But that means that during my fifth year here at school, I have the chance to experience something great: the life a normal college student. For the first time in my life I can focus on school and having a job.

Life goes on whether you are ready or not. 

I'm going to enjoy my last three practices and last three games. 

"This is my team, and this is what I'm going to do for it..."