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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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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Pre-Season & New Student Day

My roommate, Rayika, arrived last sunday. I'm so happy that she came in early as well (she's an international student from India) because the room is now less empty and lonely and she's the nicest girl. She also brought lots of food, which I think is great. I also met the other new international students: they are so nice. There are girls from Japan, there is a girl from France, Russia, India (Rayika), somewhere in Africa, a boy from Switzerland (Alex, who is also in my OA group), a boy from South-Africa, India, Ecuador and many others from different countries. There are three other Dutchies: Carlijn, who is practically my neighbor and is also in the hockey team, Anne and Marisha.

I met my host family last tuesday. Since me and Carlijn have very few time and get along really well, we decided to 'share' our host family. She is such a nice woman. Her name is Sally and she's a professor and chairwoman at Wittenberg University. She lives close to campus, loves sports (she'll watch most of our games, how sweet!) and already invited us over for breaks. Everyone is so open and friendly and inviting here! I think I've already had four invitations for the breaks, and I haven't even met my classmates yet. The freshmen (there are 500 or 600 of them!) moved in yesterday, so I'm sure I'll meet lots of them in the following days.

Pre-season is tough (I'm so sore) and the fact that I have the New (both normal and International) Student Days only makes it more exhausting. For example, yesterday (thursday), I had to wake up at 4.45 AM, be in the training room (to see the sports doctor, I probably strained my hamstring) at 5.15 AM and be on the field at 6.00 AM. After two hours of practice (we always wear an uniform at practice), we had breakfast, a one hour break and a pool workout (which is harder than it looks) at 10.30 AM. We had lunch at 11.30 AM, the New Student Days program from 1.00 PM to 4.00 PM, practice from 4.00 PM to 6.00 PM (freshmen came in late) and dinner with the team at 6.30 PM. After dinner, it was just the New Student Program: we had a meeting with our RA's at 8.00 PM and went to the hypnotist from 9.30 PM to 11.30 PM. Just a normal day in pre-season you guys, but don't get me wrong: it's a lot of fun too. We've had lots of fun at team dinners, bonfires and the hypnotist and everyone is so nice: the team really is like a family already.

The hypnotist was the coolest thing: so many people were actually hypnotized and doing the weirdest things! I didn't believe in hypnotism before, but I sure do now. I was hypnotized for about two minutes, after which some people in the audience got me out of my concentration by laughing at me and the other teammates that were in a 'trance'. It was the weirdest thing: everything went blurry and white, after which I felt like I was surrounded by fog and couldn't really see anymore. That's when I was brought out of my concentration, so I hadn't followed any of the tasks the hypnotist gave us yet. It felt so good. 

My practice uniform! #18

Campfire with the team

Some really long speech

The hypnotist - The coolest thing ever

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Springfield: Wittenberg University!

Last tuesday, I moved in to my dorm room. My roommate won't arrive until tomorrow (sunday). The dorm room is in New Hall, which is the newest (and nicest) hall of them all. My mom and sister helped me unpack my stuff and we went to get some last things at Walmart. When my room was ready and I was 'moved in', the three of us went to a deli not too far off campus to meet the Field Hockey team. I met a lot of new people and everybody was so nice: I got super excited to be part of the team (or family as they call themselves). 

The day after move-in-day, the team had paperwork day. We had breakfast at 7.30 AM in the CDR (the campus cafeteria), which is 50 steps from my dorm which is great. We spent the rest of the day going over papers, signing them, getting health-checks, doing some health tests and of course getting to know each other better. We also got to see our locker room, lockers and uniforms: they are awesome.

Today was the first day of practice. We had to get up at 5 AM and be at Hyper (the athletic center) at 6 AM to get our two miles run: we had to run two hilly miles (3,2km) in less than 16 minutes (which I did not make at all, it took me 17 minutes something). One girl pooped her pants and another peed in her pants (both are the cutest and nicest but of course athletic girls) and I almost peed mine too: I had to stop walking for a while to keep it in. So yeah, it was hard.

We had breakfast, a reading discussion and a one hour break. I took a quick shower and met up with my mom and sister for the last time in a really long time. My mom had to cry when we had to say goodbye, but that was only because she loves me so much. I love you mom and Juul!

After I said my goodbyes, the team went on a hike. The hike was really pretty and we went shopping in a hippie kind of street afterwards, so that was cool. After the hike we had a one and a half hour break in which I went to Target to get some spandex shorts and flip-flops. Then the real deal began: we had a two hour turf practice on the Football Field (BTW There are over a hundred football players, while you only have 11 players in the field. All hundred something had training before we did, and it looked awful: so many people got injured and vomited and stuff. I guess they need a lot of back-up players for a sport this tough.) 

I was already tired and sore, so I was exhausted after turf practice. Even though we've only had one day of pre-season, I can already tell that it's going to be tough, exhausting, tiring and painful, but fun.

My dorm room - Still a bit empty

The CDR (cafeteria)

The Field Hockey Lockerroom

Hiking with the team in Yellow Springs

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