Presidential salute proves an inspiration

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard” It’s been a pretty successful week between beating our crosstown rivals, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), on Friday evening and beating the 13th best team in the US, Princeton, on Sunday. It was a big week for the University of Richmond, the arrival of President Barack Obama to the Robins Centre being one of the many highlights! He was there to speak about the economy and the recent jobs act that is going to be put forward to Congress. While the tickets to see him were free, they were out of stock within minutes of being available. I was lucky to get one! A few of us queued up at about 8:30am on Friday morning, he wasn’t going to be speaking until 11:30am but it was most definitely worth the wait.

From the moment he came on stage, he had an air of confidence about him. He was cracking jokes left, right and centre. It was a typically American affair in so much as when he was saying things people liked, there was loads of clapping and cheering. Obama truly is a very charismatic character, inspiring even those who weren’t American citizens!! We played VCU on their home turf on Friday evening. We have been training there for the past 2 weeks so it was almost a neutral venue, if anything! We knew going into it that it was going to be a tough encounter considering that the past three seasons these two teams met it went into overtime in each match. However, after my first experience of overtime, I certainly never wanted to have to experience it again! It was a tough match, neither side playing particularly “pretty” hockey. It was a case of grinding it out and surviving through periods of intense pressure. While we had a somewhat poor first half, we pushed on in the second and came out the better for it. That match finished 3-2. In Irish hockey, the crowd can have an input in games if the players/officials allow for it. In American hockey, the crowd are far more vocal. They can make games great, but can also put a dampener on it. As players, it is up to us to block them out. Having heard a lot of negative comments throughout this game, it has reinforced for me just how important it is to block out the “uncontrollables”. We left for Princeton, New Jersey at 9a.m. on Saturday morning. Another long bus journey (six hours) but also an opportunity to get to see what an Ivy League college looks like. They’re ranked 13th in the country at the moment and going into the game knowing that Richmond lost 7-1 to them last season definitely made things a bit more interesting.

There were almost 150 supporters in the stands, the majority of those supporting the three New Jersey girls that we have on the squad. They made the atmosphere as brilliant as it was, without a doubt. Playing a match in the USA on the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 was always going to be fraught with emotion. We did the team warm up, official walk out, moment of silence for the victims of 9/11 and singing of the American national anthem and then…game time! They piled on the pressure, playing with brute force by hitting long balls and pressing us hard but we scored some impressive counter attack goals. The final score-line of 3-2 shocked plenty judging by the excitement and amount of texts/calls the girls were getting about the fantastic win. As players, it is always great to get a win when you’re the complete underdog. Hopefully we have more of those sort of victories in us for on coming weekends. After the Princeton game we had a tailgate; this is a very American occurrence. I must admit that I did not know what it was until the girls told me. It’s where the friends and family of the team bring food, chairs and tables, and gather around after the match socializing. I thought it was a very nice idea and a great way for the players to recognise the effort that their friends and families go to in making it to these games, some on a regular basis.