The Sweet Sounds,Sights and Smells of Winter Sports

I love winter sports season. There is just something about all the action taking place at all the various venues and the sheer number of programs going on that make it, in my mind, the most exciting season. A couple of the more subtle things though, little stuff that if you were moving fast with something else on your mind, you would simply miss all together, is what make it really special to me. For example, I love walking out of the Upper School building by either the Gilmour or Slanetz doors and seeing Wellington Gym all lit up and knowing that there is a basketball game going on. At first the horns and cheers are far off and barely discernible, but as you get closer and the door flies open to let someone out, you start to feel the energy coming from inside. Once you enter you immediately fade your steps to the right a bit so that you can catch a glimpse of the scoreboard and see how whatever Portledge team is playing is doing. Then your attention focuses onto the opposite sideline where the coaches are frantically pacing the court and yelling out plays and defensive formations for the competitors to execute. You take a glance at the scoring table to see which kind people might have volunteered to work the game. If this was last week, you might have seen Freshmen Eve Shapiro and Arielle Parris, or Miss Maielo, or even Eric Mathieu (that's right an alumni like Eric running the clock, not for community service or because he was a manager, but simply because he liked being part of what was going on there - he was in the action!

Now let's journey off campus down the road to Beaver Dam. After negotiating a treacherous and ridiculously thin Kaintuck Lane (name of the entrance road for those that might have never noticed), you eventually pull up to the elongated parking lot not believing how many people are already there, and are forced to take a parking spot that seems like it's a mile away. It's OK though, because you know what - the short walk to the rink only serves to heighten your anticipation about what you are coming to see. You feel the adrenaline well up inside you as you hear the pucks slamming into the boards below. The sounds tell you that warm ups are still going on and that you have timed your arrival just right for the drop of the puck. You wind your way down the wooden stairs and catch a brief smell of the log wood fire that is burning inside the clubhouse as you first see all the people lining the outside of the boards. Your adrenaline pumps a bit more as the teams come together around their respective goalies and give themselves a traditional cheer. Finally, before you know it, there you are watching some incredible, fast paced ice hockey, full of tremendous skating, crisp passing and hard hitting. Now that's exciting!!

Hopefully, you can see I'm just a little bit pumped for the next three months of Portledge sports action. If you have any questions about winter sports or Portledge Athletics in general that are in a constructive and positive tone, please feel free to comment after any posting, and I'll try to respond at the beginning of my next post, and PLEASE get in the action yourself by coming out to see a game - we'll be there!