Leaving it all on the Field

It was an absolutely gorgeous day out, the perfect day to play field hockey. The sun was shining and the birds were chirping.The air was perfect, not too cool, but still not too hot. I had to wake up early that morning, a little earlier than I had wanted to. I was leaving to go to Massachusetts from my home. There was a feeling of excitement in the air, or at least for me there was. Even at that early hour, I was tingling with nervousness and anxiousness. It wasn’t a bad feeling, I was actually quite happy. In fact I was so happy that I practically danced out to the car. This was a big tournament. There was going to be a large amount of college scouts there to watch and recruit players.

I was feeling lucky that day, which is abnormal for me. I felt like I was on cloud nine walking through the gates leading up to the field, as if no one or nothing could touch me. I thought to myself that nothing could get in the way of my goals. I was calm, cool, and confident. This day was different for some reason.

I was the first one on my team to arrive at UMASS Lowell. My parents had already gone up into the stands to find other parents from our club to sit with. There was a little garden that had a bench surrounding it where I sat until my coach arrived. Not too long after my coach got there, my team started to come in after her. Everyone around us could feel the eagerness and anticipation radiating off the team. We had been practicing all winter and spring for this tournament, and there was nothing holding us back.

Our coach briefly went over our game plan, and then we were off to warm up for our first game. Coach had assigned me to defense, which was and still is my absolute favorite. The first game went over like a blur. We lost, but we played amazingly. Even after losing, we held onto that confidence we had when we first walked in. We were fully capable of winning our next game if we kept up our momentum, and our coach made us aware of that. We had around two hours before our next game, so I decided to take a nap and rest and recharge during our break.

I woke up from my nap about thirty minutes before our game started so I could stretch and wake up for the game that was coming next. We had watched the team that we were playing next earlier in the day, so we had a slight idea of how they played. They were good, but they weren’t any better than us. We could definitely take them. But nothing in the world could prepare me for what was coming next.

Again, I was playing defense this game. We took the field and set up in our formation. We were definitely a bit nervous, this team was intimidating. The first ten minutes went well; we were fighting hard. The defense was holding up well. Suddenly, there was a loose ball, and I took off. Full speed to get it and clear it out. Then it happened.

At first I felt her shoulder, then came the impact of the rest of her. At first; It didn’t hurt. She was lying unconscious next to me, and I was sitting on the ground, oblivious to the horrors that awaited me. I hopped up, grabbed my stick and went back into play. I looked around, and then it came pouring down my face, covering me head to toe. My jersey, once black and white, was now red and black. I was disoriented. All I could hear were the screams all around me. The coach from the other team directed me to lie down, while my coach ran onto the field, laid me down, and started to put pressure on my head. My vision started to get blurry, and I started to turn a gray color. I heard a flurry of voices, my coach, the refs, my parents. I heard the team crying, and I was still not sure what had happened. It was chaos all around me, but I was so calm, telling everyone that I was “fine”, confirming with a “thumbs up.” I was almost too calm. Then I heard the sirens. I was loaded into the ambulance, trying to stay awake, so that my mother didn’t freak out. We were rushed to the hospital, and at that moment, I knew it was something much more serious.