Back on Track

Apologies dear readers, if any of you happen to exist. I  seem to have strayed terribly far from my original purpose, which  I assume, by virtue of the blog title, had something to do with the Athlete Experience.  I have led you on a meandering path toward a cliff of randomness. And I have asked you to jump from that cliff into the oblivion of utter meaninglessness. I have failed wholeheartedly to keep you properly adrift of the athletic experience that matters to me, the way that has become my means - my mode of exploration, my celebration of humanity, and my form of art.

And that is the way of the Red, White, and Blue. The Stars and Stripes. The United States of America. With a field hockey stick, a ball, and my teammates. I serve the greatest country in the world.

So here is my attempt to rectify my failure, reclaim your readership and get back on track.

 Now seems like the best place for the beginning of that quest.

The time reads 6:28 AM IST, Irish Standard Time if such a thing exists. I have been awake for an idle two hours, willing myself hopelessly back to sleep.

It started at 4:44 this morning when a thin line of light crept below the heavy curtain into my bedside window awakening my senses to the harmonizing melody of chirping soprano birds and howling baritone winds.

Why were they up so early?

James Joyce lay beside me atop the covers where he had rested himself after yester's long Dublin night. A night in which I had expected myself to fall for an early slumber, yet, to my sleepy dismay my body had not yet properly adjusted from the day's long travel across the Atlantic. I laid awake for a long while waiting for darkness to fall on the Irish summer night.

Ireland, the land of Gaelic speakers, green shamrocks, and divine castles. I dwindled away the ticks of my sleepless morning with a cup of  tea waiting patiently for the rest of my t'mates to rise for our first Irish breakfast together.

I decided that perhaps it would be a good time to recount how I, well actually we, came to be in Dublin.

The journey did not begin on Monday, as one may be inclined to think, when we boarded a flight from San Diego to Philadelphia.  It began three weeks prior on May 27th after New Jersey won the annual Field Hockey National Championship in Washington DC.

Significant about that day however was not New Jersey's victory; it was the victory of 28 athletes who won selection to the 2011 National Team, and perhaps even more so, for the 18 athletes who earned a place on USA's roster for the upcoming Champions Challenge in Dublin, Ireland.

After selection, those 28 athletes of which I was fortunate enough to be one, moved back to California for a training camp at our home base in Chula Vista. Our bodies and minds were put under duress - we vied fiercely against one another in three rounds of inter-squad scrimmages, the intention being that the intense competition on the training ground strengthened us for the trials of the proving grounds.

Prepared, we departed San Diego. Sleep deprived and exhausted, we arrived yesterday in Ireland, and shortly after deboarding, we introduced ourselves to the playing field.

The grounds that are our proving grounds. The Champions Challenge, the first step in our nation's progression toward and beyond the 2012 London Olympics. The tournament contenders include South Africa, Scotland, Japan, Ireland, Azerbaijan, Spain and India. Each of us are vying for a promotion to the Champions Trophy tournament and elevation in our respective world ranking.

The red, white, and blue currently sit at a disappointing #13. Last year, after failing to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, our world ranking took a major hit. We dropped from 8 to 13. A years displacement from that failure, and we find ourselves in a position to begin our climb back up the ladder.

And we intend to make our ascent, the way a ladder ought to be climbed, one rung at a time..

It will be a long, exciting journey. And now that I am back on track, I invite you to join us on our climb, one blog at a time.