Aug. 21, 2006

WOW! Double days are over now and school is beginning. We all really enjoyed our double days this year. After eating every meal together and taking freezing cold baths together to avoid muscle soreness. Our team truly did bond. I felt like double days were a real success.

We spent half of Wednesday and all of Thursday together on a team retreat. We went to Ross Park to begin our retreat. There we talked about a book we all read this summer called Reach for the Summit by Tennessee's Women's Basketball coach, Pat Summitt. We all really enjoyed the book because it applied so much to our lives, even though we don't play basketball it was more based on being an athlete. After Ross Park, we went to the top of Red Hill where we played a game to help us understand strengths we wanted for our team to have this season. We were then asked by our coaches to write on a file card our dreams for this team; these were to be shared later that night. Later we went to Scout Mountain where we ate dinner and talked as a team about our dreams and goals for the rest of the season. On a less serious note, every car was assigned to sing the Bengal Fight Song to a different tune, which was very entertaining. We were all able to sleep in our own beds Wednesday night which was a real treat. We woke up Thursday morning and headed to Jensen's Grove in Blackfoot where we spent the remainder of the day. We enjoyed Frisbee golf and team bonding exercises. Later we got to go swimming and ride a Jet Ski. It was super fun!

We returned to practice on Friday morning for our final double day. After two weeks of practice, we finished off our double days with the Alumni Game. It was really fun for all of us to play against the alumni. We also had the opportunity to eat with them after and meet with them in the team room where we became better acquainted. It was a very enjoyable day for all of us.

This upcoming week we are starting classes, and our team will be traveling to Central Michigan to play in a tournament. The juggle between volleyball and life as a college student begins for all of us.