What Does Centex Mean To You? (Part VII)

Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI

Today's post is a bit delayed because apparently, it's possible for everything to fall apart more than once.  :(  Sometimes rain threatens your field site and you find that the backup location you secured previously has undergone unplanned construction and rock dumping sometime in the past two weeks.  Someday I'll write a book...

I'm privileged to share posts from three former Tufts players tonight.  Ewo has been a huge part of Women's College Centex in recent years.  Their epic performance at 2011 only strengthened our commitment to creating opportunities to play up and it helped to propel the team back to the top of the college women's division.  Princess and Juice were the two leaders with a vision and we worked hard to get the team to Centex their senior year.  Qxhna continued this commitment to excellence and has been a huge inspiration to all of us with her project All-Star Ultimate Tour.

Centex 2011 began my senior college ultimate spring and was a glorious launch to an exciting and challenging season. We were initially seeded 22nd out of 54 teams but surprised everyone by winning games against North Carolina, Carleton College, Washington, and Iowa to finish 3rd. The format of the tournament allowed us to rise out of Div II and face new levels of competition, which began a successful season and triumphant return to the Nationals scene later that year. Games aside, other huge highlights of the weekend were: THE DANCE COMPETITION!!!, playing in an all-women tournament, having Michelle Ng as the TD, escaping cold NE climates & meeting competition from across the country, eating delicious Mexican food, and staying with super welcoming Austin ultimate community members. Centex 2011 will always have a special place in my heart!

Anna "Princess" Chute

Most Recent Team: Wild Card 2012-2014

College Team Attended With: Tufts University Ewo 

Year Attended: Player 2011 

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What I loved about centex was that it brought really good competition for women's teams early in the season. Its a long winter in New England, and often or not our first or second serious tournament as the A team was sectionals. Centex not only improved our team through playing together early on against excellent teams from all over the country, but by providing some serious EXCITEMENT/PUMP UP early in the season during indoor practice season. It didn't hurt that the tournament was flawlessly run and put together. Also, trying to come up with a dance for our team was a welcome distraction (even though we definitely should have won) from tedious midterms.

Anna "Juice" Glassman

College Team Attended With: Tufts University Ewo

Year Attended: Player 2011

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There's something about arriving at the Centex field site and just seeing a sea of women's ultimate. Field after field after field of powerful and strong female athletes - for as far as the eye can see! I loved attending Centex when I was in college at Tufts University because I felt a part of the women's ultimate community! 

Qxhna Titcomb

Current Team: Seattle Riot

College Team Attended With: Tufts University Ewo

Years Attended: 2012-2013, 2015

The Little Things (Part II)

People who know me well know that I love to tell stories.  A lot of people have been asking me to post more regularly, and a number of people contacted me about yesterday's post, so I'll share two stories with you about why the little things matter.

Over the years, I've been extremely privileged to have a small window of insight into the lives of a number of college players.  People come to me with problems ranging from personal playing issues to team problems to serious life crises.  I am grateful for the opportunity to get to know these players on a deeper level than just TD-player, but I often feel overwhelmed by my inability to actually do anything to help them.  I was commenting to one of my friends recently that sometimes I feel helpless because I honestly don't know how I can help these people.  My friend responded, "You care.  That's why they come to you, and them knowing that you care is enough."  Huh.

Today I received a really wonderful and thoughtful email from a player whose team has come to something like eight of my tournaments over the course of the past three seasons.  The team was a supporter of some of my early work in the Midwest, and is now one of the best teams in the nation.  Two years ago, I had a conversation with one of their players on the sideline of a tournament and it was clear that she was having a very emotional weekend.  While I consider her to be a friend now, I hardly knew her at the time, but texted her after the tournament to make sure she was ok.

Here is an excerpt from the email she wrote me today:

"I can't really tell you how much that meant to me. It meant a lot that some stranger cared enough to go through the trouble (with a million other things and people on your mind) to send me that text. It reminded me that people are good and caring, even when they don't have any stake in the situation. I was nobody and you still cared enough to check on me. Thank you.

I have changed a lot since then, and so has my team. I have become a better person I hope. I think I have learned to care about people more and take time to invest in friendships more. A huge part of that is because I learned I could be a better friend and person by knowing you... I didn't know if I had ever told you how much I respect you, so I wanted to be sure you knew. I know this tournament season and really just last couple of years have been crazy for you, but the fact that you are able to keep pushing on, caring for people, sticking hard to your beliefs, and taking chances even when it isn't easy means a lot."

It's the little things.

The second story is about something someone did for me eight years ago.

I was a rookie on the Cal B team and we were playing the Pie Queens at Sectionals.  We were getting destroyed and I was guarding (well, attempting to guard) the Queens' Callahan nominee, Andrea "Chowdah" Jung.  About halfway through the game, there was a particularly embarrassing point, during which I chased Chowdah around the field, trailing her by about 10 yards at all times.  She broke me for the score, and I turned to walk to the sidelines, feeling dejected.  The next part I remember vividly.  Chowdah stopped me, shook my hand, and said "Keep playing.  You're going to be really good someday."  It took her about 10 seconds of effort, but that moment has stuck with me over many, many years, and is a huge reason why I keep pushing myself so hard as a player.  I want to improve because I want to make her proud.  As a leader on the A team and as one of the best players in the country, she had little reason to talk to me.  But she made the effort anyway.

A few years ago, we were playing each other at a club tournament, and I got a layout D on her teammate on an O2 cut.  After that point, I walked over to the sidelines and Chowdah just looked at me and said, "See, I told you."

It's the little things.