Wittenberg Field Hockey Tigers

Being a Field Hockey Tiger for Wittenberg University is amazing. The team is great, we're like one big family. We meet up quite often, having four practices of 2,5 each and two games a week, and often have study tables or parties with each other. We meet up an hour/ half an hour before practice to get dressed and chat, dance and sing the hour away. After practice, we all take a quick shower and get dinner together. If you need help with one of your subjects, there's always an upperclassmen that's there to help you. If you need to go to the store, there's always someone willing to drive you there. I love my teammates. The coaches and sports doctors are great too, they're always there to help you, give individual practices, tips, etc. and are so nice. Even though season is really intense, it's lots of fun too. Here is a preview of a(n away) game day.

Game day

Departure - If we're having an away game, we meet up about half an hour before we're supposed to depart. We get a bag that we fill with our uniforms, shoes, mouthguard, shampoo etc. and make sure that our Tiger Buddies get the packages we prepared for them, without finding out that who their Tiger Buddy is. When we have everything we need, we bring our stuff to the bus and get to our seats, taking our own Tiger Buddy package, schoolbag, a blanket and a pillow with. The drive, whether it is one or four hours away, is filled with doing homework, watching movies, listening to music, chatting, and sleeping.

Two hours before - Everyone is in the locker room, getting dressed, seeing the sports doctors, re-reading the report on the team we're about to play against. We listen to music with the volume turned all the way up, dancing an getting pumped up for the game. Fifteen minutes before we're supposed to walk to the field, we all exchange our individual goals and pump each other up a bit more.

An hour before - Time to start with our warmup. We walk to the field in pairs of two, usually in our practice jersey while carrying our game jersey and stick. We do our usual routine, which consists of running, one vs. ones, the "W"-shaped offense drill, a four vs. four attack/ defense drill, corners and tip-ins. 

The game - We switch our practice jerseys for our game jerseys and line up in order of our numbers. In two long lines, both teams walk up to the middle of the field and spread out into one long line of players and coaches. The game commentator gives some information about the game and starts with voicing both start-ups: every player that starts the game gets named, once again in order of our numbers, and gets a round of applause from both the other players and the audience. After voicing both start-ups, everyone is asked to take of their heads, face the American flag and sing with the national anthem (players put their right hand on the right shoulder of the player in front of them). After this, both teams do a quick yell and it's time for the game to begin.

During the game, the players that are not in the field support their team by cheering them up and acting as if they are assistant coached. When a player on the field switches with someone who's on the bench, the commentator let's the audience know who switched for who. When someone scores, the commentator lets the audience know who scored. When someone gets a penalty corner, the commentator will let you know. Everyone can see the competing teams, remaining time, the score etc. on the score board, and the entire game is videotaped.

It's quite an experience.

Team dinner in the CDR

Team Roster - The Wittenberg Field Hockey Team 2014-2015

The Wittenberg Field Hockey Freshmen of Class 2018

Bus ride with the team / With Carlijn, the other Dutchie on the team

 Wittenberg vs. Oberlin(I'm #18)

Wittenberg vs. Oberlin (I'm #18)

Getting ready for a party with some teammates

Field Hockey Roster

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Fun Fact Friday!

So… I meant to post this on friday, to make it a legitimate fun fact friday, but I totally forgot.. My bad! I've been busy. We had a stay over in Indiana last week, which means that we had two away games in a row and stayed over in a hotel. Then on monday, I went to the movies with Maria and Riley. The cinema was in a super sketchy neighborhood so I was really on edge, and the movie (If I Stay) was so depressing and beautiful that we cried for half the movie and came out all teary eyed and red nosed. The week went by in blur and I had my first Witt Wednesday (wednesday is the biggest party day at Witt). I went to a fraternity party and had a blast: I met a lot of nice new people who kept introducing me to others ("Guys, come here, one of the Dutchies is here!!"). Then this saturday, we had another stay over, in Ohio this time, and won twice :)

Anyways: since we have fun fact fridays every week (everyone shares fun facts with each other), I decided to do a fun fact friday about Wittenberg! So here are some fun facts about Witt.. 

• We wear our dorm keys as bracelets. We attach a (rubber) band to our keys so that we can wear them, because honestly, everyone loses their keys. All the time. One of my teammates had to get her lock replaced twice already because she lost hers. 
• We have puppies and kittens all over campus. The puppies are part of a project on Wittenberg, where students help raise guide dogs. We have the most adorable labradors walking around and everyone loves them. The students love the kittens, that are actually homeless, as well. Some of them have been adopted already, but the ones that haven't been yet aren't having a hard time either. Students buy them water bowls and cat food all the time and everyone loves petting them. The faculty members are not necessarily as happy about it as the students are.
• In the CDR (the cafeteria), there is this huge ass piano that people like playing on. This means that there are almost always students making live music while you're having dinner, which is so nice.
• Student-Athletes are super easy to spot. You can recognize them so easily. A lot of them just wear sports clothes, all day, almost every day. If they're wearing normal clothes, you can recognize them because they carry around their water bottle everywhere (we have to, because we have to stay hydrated and stuff) and because they have the worst and the weirdest tan lines. 
• There is always something to do. There is always a comedian, a play, a fair, a party, a game or something going on. We have over a hundred clubs that organize fun things to do all the time. You want to go to a museum? Big chance that the history is going on a trip somewhere this week. You want to climb mountains and see caves? There's a cave club for that. Want to participate in martial arts, an acapella group or play quidditch? Just find their club. There is literally always something to do, so you'll never get bored.
• Pillow pets are hot. They're the cutest things and everyone has them. It's basically a pillow and a stuffed animal in one, and they're the best. You can buy a turtle, dog, bee, bear, unicorn.. I've seen it all. And I'm buying one as soon as I get off campus again.
• The biggest, most popular and most fun tradition that we have on Wittenberg, is streaking. Everyone has to streak down the Hollow at least one during their four years on Wittenberg. The Hollow is this hill on campus, that leads to the Synod Hall, which is next to the police office on campus. You get rid of your clothes on top of the Hollow, run down naked, touch the doors of the Synod Hall with your naked butt, and run back up the hill again to get dressed. A lot of people enjoy the rush so much that they take it a step higher and make a goal out of streaking through all of the buildings on campus before they graduate as well, which I think is hilarious. Me and Carlijn couldn't ignore a tradition like this and made sure to be one of the first of our year. (Those red chairs on the Hallow are so cute and they're everywhere on campus. People learn, hang out and sleep in those chairs all of the time. They make our campus even prettier and more fun.)

I miss you guys!

The key to my dorm can also be worn as a necklace

The cutest puppies ever (next to Yess of course)

Lunch with the team - Look out for those tan lines!

A comedian - I ended up with my mouth being duct taped

Pillow Pets

The Hollow

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First week of classes!

The past week was my first day of classes, and what a (busy) week it was. The last days before classes, we all had our own OA groups to get to know some of the other freshmen and to learn a bit more about Wittenberg. There were a lot of fun activities on campus, under which the Casino Night and the Wittlympics. Casino Night was lots of fun: I turn out to suck at most gambling games, but still had a blast. At the end of the night, Carlijn and I decided that we wanted to be one of the first freshmen to do the Wittenberg tradition: we went streaking on the hollow. We almost got caught. It was so fun.

The Wittlympics were great: all dorms went to the Gymnasium in one color (New Hall was red) to compete against each other in the Wittlympics. The teams/ dorms played dodgeball, mini golf, sudoku and lots of other sports against each other. The atmosphere was amazing and everyone had a great time. 

Just before classes started was the first American Football Game: Red vs. White (Wittenberg against Wittenberg). It was fun to go to and I was amazed by the amount of people in the audience. I was even more amazed by the amount of injuries these fellows have already: American Football really is a rough sport.

The day before classes (sunday) was the day that I had my first college party: the team went out to celebrate the end of pre-season and the beginning of the year. It was fun to play beerpong, chesting and lots of other drinking games that I've never heard of before. I didn't feel like drinking and am of course not allowed to drink because of my age, so I actually drank sprite instead of alcohol.

That's when the first week of classes actually started. We had four practices and two games, on top of our actual schoolwork;) I have English, French and Chemistry on mondays, wednesdays and fridays (I changed biology into French) and Public Speaking on tuesdays and thursdays. It sounds like less work than it is: every hour of class equals one to two hours of homework. The classes are fun though, especially Public Speaking. It's a difficult and challenging subject, but that's what makes it more fun. 

Sometime during this week, Car and I met up with Sally (our host family) and went to see her house. She lives in an adorable house in an adorable neighborhood. It was, at least in my eyes, a typical American home which only added to its charm. Another extra: she only lives a mile (1,6km) from campus.

During this week, the university had organized an activities fair: all clubs, fraternities and sororities had their own stands and were trying to recruit new members. In the mean time, there was a giant outside barbecue. The atmosphere was, once again, amazing. It was so cool to learn about the sororities, different majors their clubs, male and female acapella groups (Yes! They actually have those, I'm so amazed. It felt like Pitch Perfect all over. It was great.) and the clubs that's main purpose was to do community work and raise money for charities.

On friday, we had our first official game. We got to see our away-games uniforms, went to Washington & Jefferson by bus (W&J is located in Pennsylvania, it took us three and a half hours to get there) and… sadly lost. We played an amazing game though, I'm proud of the team. Saturday, we had another practice (we have four a week) and had a team dinner at Post, a restaurant on campus, after which we went to a Volleyball game to cheer on some of our fellow student-athletes: I loved it. It was so fun to be in the audience of one of our universities games and cheer "Tiger up Witt Tiger up" with the rest of the audience. Our women's volleyball team won:)

Whenever I had time during this week, I would Skype with my family and friends. I love talking to you guys, you're the best. It's nice to know how everyone is doing back home and to hear stories about your new classes, studies and universities. Keep me updated!

The Wittlympics

White vs. Red Football game

First college party with the team!

Sally her adorable house

The interests fair

You're basically eating frozen water, it's gross

On our way to an away game!

Getting ready for our first game against W&J

Volleyball - We won

Skype with some of my besties :)

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