It is hard to believe that Team U40 has come so far so fast! Here we stand on the brink of our greatest adventure to date... the quest to defend our world title in Finland in the coming weeks!!! On Tuesday, our Blaine contingent will fly to Albany, N.Y., and then make the familiar drive up to Lake Placid, home of the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Winter Games, and, of course, the "Miracle on Ice." For many of us, the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center has come to feel like a home away from home, or at least a sort of time-share up in the Adirondack Mountains where we go to hone our craft. Since the beginning of our program, Lake Placid has played host to nearly all of the USA Hockey festivals and camps for girls and women. As players, we have grown up there, inspired by its Olympic history, and the spirit that still lives on in the quiet frontier town.

It is the perfect place for us to escape from the world, settle our minds, and focus on the task ahead. Of course it's not all work and no play... Hockey players just don't work that way... There are many possible examples to give, but I think my favorite Lake Placid moment as of late was the mass wiffle ball game that took place out back behind the training center. It was during the Women's National Festival in August, when all three teams: U18, U22 and, of course, U40, gather to compete against one another and vie for spots on the National Team. Wiffle ball may not sound so terribly fascinating, but it really is remarkable to watch such skilled athletes participate in sports other than their own. First of all, we are all elite athletes, type-A competitive women to the core, and we do not like to lose whether it is on the ice against our rivals from around the world, or on a sandlot against one another in shorts and flip-flops. Secondly, though I like to think of hockey as the paramount of athletically demanding sports, this does not mean that our talents translate directly to the wiffle ball field. Now, I am not going to mention any names in an effort to protect the innocent and tragically sheepish, however, there were several spin-out occurrences in which certain teammates were swinging for the fences unaware of the centrifugal force of their own strengths, resulting not only in a painfully embarrassing slow-pitch strike out, but more often than not, a muddy back side. Needless to say, wiffle ball is even more fabulous in that only one person is up at a time, allowing both teams and bystanders to witness each and every humiliation.

Thus, we look forward to Lake Placid with much anticipation, but, the U40s will be sad to leave Minnesota on Tuesday. This inaugural season of residency has been better than we had ever imagined. Last Tuesday, we had our last official team practice, and went out to lunch to celebrate and say a few goodbyes to members of the rink staff as well as coach Tom Osiecki, who has piloted our ship throughout the year. Jessica Koizumi (Simi Valley, Calif./University of Minnesota Duluth ‘07) put together funny team awards that we all voted on and appropriate gag gift prizes. For example, Jamie Hagerman (North Andover, Mass./Harvard University '03) won best eyes and her gift was a crazy pair of hot pink, sequin-adorned, over-sized glasses. As you can see, we are a pretty classy bunch. It also happened to be St. Patrick's Day, so those of us who are Irish in any way, and everyone else who was Irish for the day forced the coaching staff to wear large green costume hats in celebration. Obviously, they were thrilled with the attention. The whole day was surreal. We have been together almost every day since September, breaking in our new training program, working out the kinks, and keeping each other motivated and happy in our new city. We have trained and laughed harder this last year than ever before. With the 2010 Olympic Winter Games less than a year away, we are so thankful to have had this opportunity to work together to be the best in the world, and have a great time doing it.

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