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Behind the Scenes with D.C.F.H.
This blog has moved! Check it out at blog.davidsonwildcats.com.
Editor's Note: The DavidsonWildcats.com blog, Wildcats' Roar, is getting revamped into a more user-friendly format. The dust has not completely settled yet though, so this will be the temporary home of Courtney's blog. We'll make sure to let you know where to find it in the future!
Commitment, Opportunity, Heart
By Courtney Tobe - Sept. 9, 2010
The tears in senior Clare Perry’s eyes said enough after we defeated Lafayette 3 to 0 this past Sunday. Two weekends into our season and still undefeated, something that Clare and I and the rest of this year’s senior class has never experienced before. In our four years of Davidson hockey we have been through some difficult seasons. Seasons full of tough losses and great successes, but we have never experienced anything like this, 4-0. If I’ve learned one thing from DCFH, it’s that winning isn’t everything, but our recent success has brought a new sense of confidence to our team that didn’t exist before. We finally believe in ourselves and are realizing what we are capable of, and we won’t let anything stop us from reaching our potential.
This past summer, Ginny and Catherine came up with three core values for our program to focus on: Commitment, Opportunity, and Heart. The goal being that these three words will embody the spirit of D.C.F.H. and reflect the attitude of our program. Wednesday evening, Sandy Helfgott, Davidson’s Director of Physical Education and Recreation, came to talk to us about the importance of maintaining these three core values and living them out throughout the course of our season. Sandy’s speech was extremely motivational and a good thing to hear leading up to our weekend at William and Mary. We are in a good place right now, especially after receiving 4 votes for the top 20, but we need to make sure that we don’t let up and this weekend will be a good test for us.
Keep following along for more behind the scenes D.C.F.H. moments! Go Cats! – Tobe #7
D.C.F.H. Season Underway
By Courtney Tobe - Sept. 2, 2010
As I took to the field for our first game of our 2010 season this past weekend I could not help thinking about preseason. The 9 days of intensive conditioning, three a day practices (yes that’s right … 3 a days), sweltering temperatures on the turf, cold whirl pools, and a soreness that can’t fully be comprehended unless you have experienced it. Everyday tasks like getting out of bed, getting dressed, and even sleeping all felt impossible, and yet even while our bodies were in such intense pain, we somehow found a way to make it back out to the field for the next session. Our fans didn’t see the hard work that we put in during camp and neither did our opponents, but together we worked, struggled, and survived all to make it to this moment, when the referee blows the whistle and our season begins.
My name is Courtney Tobe, and I am a senior from Louisville, Kentucky, on Davidson College’s field hockey team. I have officially survived four D.C.F.H. preseason’s (something I never thought I would be able to say), and I have never felt as proud of the work that we put in during preseason as I do right now because we had an amazing opening weekend.
The weekend started out with a seven and a half hour long bus ride to our nation’s capital. Seven and a half hours is a long time to be on a bus, but we managed to pass the time pretty easily with an impromptu J.Lo movie marathon, good conversation, and a lot of snacks. Although there were moments when the bus ride felt like it would never end, the trip was definitely worth it. We brought home two wins, a 5-0 win against Bryant on Friday and a 5-0 win against St. Francis on Saturday, and we had an amazing crowd turn out for the games.
One of the great things about D.C.F.H. is the amount of support we get from our fans. We had several parents make the trip to D.C. and two D.C.F.H. ’09 alums, Sara Stevens, and Tyler Kirkland came out to show their support. To top things off, Darrel Young, a RB/LB for the Washington Redskins made an appearance at American University to watch our games and cheer for the Davidson Wildcats (all of the Davidson Dad’s were extremely excited about this one). The weekend was a great way to kick off our season and has really inspired us to work hard this week in practice.
We have a lot of potential as a team and a lot of goals that we have set for ourselves this season. The next step we have to take toward reaching them comes this weekend with two games. We open up at home on Saturday against Towson at 12 p.m., and play Lafayette at Wake Forest on Sunday. These are two really good match-ups for us and we can’t wait to hopefully add two more W’s to our record.
Throughout our season, I’ll be checking back in with game updates, funny stories, player interviews, and much more. Keep following along for more behind the scenes D.C.F.H. moments and please come out and show your support on Saturday! Go Cats! – Tobe #7