Perhaps the hardest blog to compose....

This is a tough blog to write as I didn't think I'd be writing some of these things --- *sigh* --- AIK made it to the final match and for the regular season we were undefeated. I was pretty confident that the women of the AIK bandy team were well on their way to a repeat of winning and defending the SM Guld status. I was wrong...and I am very saddened to write that. I am still in a bit of shock and disappointment. The IFK girls came out striking hard with high pressure on our team, and it showed that they were hungry. One friend of mine said “you could tell that your team had everything to lose and they had everything to gain”. I do think that’s how our team played…unfortunately. However, on the up side, it is said to be “good for Swedish Bandy” to have another team win the gold! It shows that you can play all year and have a great season, but that doesn’t mean that you can win “it all”. It means that although we had an awesome chemistry and great team, we too are human. “What went wrong?” one might ask. I honestly don’t know. Not to discredit the girls of IFK, but the goals they scored were from outside of the penalty area…where goals are rarely scored from. Granted, we shouldn’t have given them the shots to score from there in the first place. We had many chances ourselves to score, but we missed the net. AIK and IFK both played a hard fought match and both teams put their hearts into it…but what went wrong? I have no answers. Maybe the question is more for IFK and “what went right?”

I did get to skate for a whole minute when one of our half backs lost an edge (after going flying over the boards and landing on cement!), and one of our midfielders also lost an edge, but that was all of the ice time I got to see. I cannot complain about the little bit of ice time that I saw that particular day. The game was brutal and I even saw our strongest player get flipped as she took a knee to knee impact; I would have lost my knee in that collision – I’m glad it wasn’t me, and I’m glad that our player is OK. I played a lot of bandy this season, so sure, while I wanted to take to the ice during that final match, I realize as well that I’m an American bandy player that has only been playing bandy for 4 years and I played a whole lotta bandy this winter. Coming into this season, I was thinking I’d get to skate every other game or so if I was lucky. The team did originally have about 20 people that were interested in playing, and we ended up with 16 for the whole season; of the 20, there were an additional 2 midfielders that I could have been competing for ice time with – I’m a very fortunate person to have had as much ice time as I did. I am also very thankful that I was given the chance to be on the bench during that final match. You see, we have had to sit at least 2 people every game this year, meaning that they don’t even get to take to the bench in their bandy gear during the games, rather they sit in the stands and cheer on the team. Yes, I’m very lucky to have even been in the jersey that day, and it’s an experience I will never forget. The anticipation, the excitement of getting ready, going through warm ups, taking to the ice, the cameras on the players, the buzz going through the locker room…it’s something that I cannot put into words. The silence that filled the locker room at the end of the game was disturbing; this was something we had been playing for all season and to have it taken away from us…that was not how we wanted the season to end. I do have to say, that it builds character. It makes me hunger to come back even more and play another season with a team that can win the gold just to see what it’s like to be on “that” end of the game. I think AIK will come back with a vengeance and take it to whomever they face next year and win it all back! I know that they can!!! I hope to be able to return to Sweden and play some time in the very near future – I’ve only become hungrier.

I have to admit that the after party was just as crazy even though I was not on the SM Gold team. I will leave it at that…it was a blast and I had a great time…the next day was not as forgiving and I partied like I had won the gold because in my heart and in my mind, I have had a very golden season here playing bandy with a great group of people all of whom I will miss when we head back to the States.

So, the questions I’ve been getting are “what will the team do now? Will you continue to train? What are the other team mates like? Do they have families? How can you give up every weekend to play like that?” Let me take them one at a time:
I am still training, just not on the ice. We ‘pulled the plug’ on the cooling unit for the ice the Wednesday night before we played in the Finals, so I won’t be “skating training” while I’m here. That last practice was quite memorable in my mind: I was on the ice as one of our team managers turned it off and I felt very sad. Thom had the chance to take to the ice before our team did that night and he sat there just listening to the silence of the night and the shifting of the ice as it was fighting to stay frozen on that warm evening. I stayed out there after everyone had gone off, took a lap around slowly taking in the view of the snow capped trees as the ice is set off in the woods. I got to center ice and had a few tears slide down my cheeks, and then I skated off. So sad to realize that it was my last bandy training on my home ice.

Instead, the training I will do now is more for my “off season” sports such as marathons and triathlons. One of the girls on the team teaches classes at a local gym, so I went to a spinning class on Monday (after we played the final on Saturday), and will attend on Wednesday as well. My running training will start up in full force after this weekend as our team is going to a “Ski Weekend” together. From what I understand, there is very little skiing and more socialization than anything…I intend to do both in moderation.

The team will take a bit of a physical break (after we do our skiing/social weekend together), and then they will get back into their training in May. Really --- they start training for their bandy season in May and it doesn’t start until November!! I will plan to follow their training plan this summer as well so I may be in the same top physical condition as them when I make my return  (Ok, I will do the training, and am going to work on figuring out how we can come back!)

The team mates – they are all in school or working full time. When I say “School” there is one girl who is still in “high school” and the rest are at University. They are all very dedicated to bandy and they have no problems giving up their personal time to train and skate like they do. Everyone’s family members and significant others realize the commitment that is required of them and they just understand it. The players on the team --- none of them are moms this year (although 2 are pregnant now!), but in the past, there were a few that were moms. Like I said, the family just realizes that the commitment is in the players blood, and they work together to make it happen.

What will Thom and I do now?
Well, this coming weekend as I’ve already mentioned is a skiing weekend/party weekend for the team. Thom will hang at home and go out with the guys (which is good as I’m sure he’s been dying for some “guy time”). After that, we have planned a small Euro Trip to Helsinki, Tallinn, and Riga. We have a day scheduled in each of the cities, and in Riga we will meet with my friend Sarma so she can show us around. After that long weekend of travel, we will come back to Sweden to see how they celebrate Easter and then (tears filling my eyes), we fly back home.

We will only be home for a couple of weeks (long enough for me to file taxes, say hello to those in Minneapolis), then we fly out for a family vacation with my side of the family. VERY excited to see all of them, especially my mom and my little niece (who I understand speaks in full sentences now and she’s just 2!!!!!!! Glad I’ll have someone to talk to on the vacation, HA HA!)

I just can’t believe that we are down to our last 3 weekends here and that’s it. We’re done in Sweden, we resume life back in the States, and I wish that I could come back and do it all over again. We’ve had a great adventure here and the only thing I would do differently is schedule the trip to be longer so we could see Sweden in the summer months as well.

Oh – and I did win the Bjorn Borg underwear competition (thanks everyone!) I came out with 15 new pairs of underwear and 3 new bras! Quite the collection!!! I will know if I am a finalist in the Adidas competition on March 30th, but I’m still in the running for the Nike competition! Please make sure to vote each day! Thanks to all of you who have been, I appreciate it.

Keep on voting for me on the Nike one!!!
http://www.brickfish.com/Pages/PhotosAlbums/PhotoView.aspx?picid=832420_51122567&pid=1393431&scid=418&=HP_sports_PPIMEMAIL&isep=1&pbapi=-1&pbvi=45721425&pdi=2366

I’m sure to have a few more blog posts before we head back to the states…I just can’t believe this was my wrap up of the bandy season. Where did the time go?

For the love of the game,
KP