Taylor Vigil: Bounce.

Hello Everyone! So if you’re reading this now, I am sure that you have heard/read about the tough two losses we were faced with this weekend against Stanislaus and Chico State, either on the web or by Olivia Larkin’s blog post. There were many factors that went into the losing aspect of the game; things within our control and things we wished we had in our control. Things such as decision making within our offense to certain calls the refs made. While they were losses that happened they are lessons to learn from. In the words of Oly directly, “if we wanted it to be easy, this isn’t the way, we should have tried out for intramurals,” is in fact the truth. It is what makes the word COMPETE such a powerful one. It is a particular word that seems to be of importance in the context of this team for this year.

While we were given the short end of the stick this weekend with things out of our control we have to face the truths when we say that we may have taken few little details for granted that were actually in our control during both games. Yet rather than carrying the burden of the losses with us collectively it has to be, more importantly the lessons from those losses that we take with us to build on and learn from.

By going 0-2 this weekend there is one of two ways to look at it. One, we can buy into what the next day’s website said about the previous games and point fingers to only burry ourselves deeper into the negative aspect or two, we can use those negative losses similar to how we used Oly’s accident as a spark of motivation and desire to push through it all to create a will and make a way to get better. The harsh reality of it is that when a loss occurs it isn’t one person singled out but instead, for example, "Seawolves Can’t Stop Warriors in OT", or "Seawolves Fall Cold in Loss at Chico." With that being said, what do you do about it? Do you get angry and take it out on each other not realizing by doing that you’re only headed down hill? Or do you allow yourself to get angry and remember that feeling during the final seconds counting down at the end of the final buzzer, seeing the other teams faces light up with excitement knowing at the end you had been defeated, and use it against your next opponent? Or are those feelings forgotten in a few hours, or a day or even a week? These are factors my team and I are faced with, but there is no doubt in my mind that I believe full heartedly that my teammates will remember, BUT remember for the better!

With everyone’s thoughts and mindset that happened within the aftermath of the losses, it is the true meaning of the word ‘bounce’ that will get us where we need to be in our near future. Bounce is defined as something that leaps away suddenly; refuses to accept and sends back; spring away, spring away from an impact. A word that became popular after both our losses back to back this weekend within the locker room, yet should be a word ALWAYS remembered. A word that when we hear we think of those specific feelings of the final buzzer counting down with just seconds to go, remembering we came up short. But by remembering the powerful feelings in retrospect to this word ‘bounce,’ it is a reminder of what we have been through as a team and what we shall use to instill in our next opponents to come. By using this anger we once felt in a positive way, we can take it out on teams in the future. Also meaning that we will be the team talked about in our opponents locker room in which THEY need to bounce back from.

Considering the weekend, we have gone off track- or shall I say, astray from where we have been in the previous weeks, although it is no one’s fault it is just how the cards were dealt out. It doesn’t have to be looked upon as something negative either. The week simply presents itself with a new day, a new chance and a new opportunity to seek improvement.

Now bear with me because the way I see it is you have the waves within the sea, a paddle boat, a group of hard working talented women and a shore they are all in search of finding. Therefore, with the week continuing on as the waves in the sea that cease to never stop, similar to a ticking clock that never pauses for even a moment, there are 14 of my fellow sisters that I look to beside me all impacted in a small paddle boat. Each person trying to handle the fact that everything we got we got the hard way, like the small paddle boat and each person I look to, myself included, realizes with everyone rowing the boat, the shore becomes something of easier possibility and within our reach. A possibility to be successful yet again and do so by taking five steps forward rather than three steps back. A possibility I believe in, a possibility that can become a reality for us all.

You better believe that you can count on hearing about our successes in the near future because I know and trust in all of my sisters that we will be back out on the practice ground finding and achieving a way to become better. We have decided to make our practices a more realistic and pressure filled environment similar to how the actual games are played. And with this week’s practices you already know we will have a game plan ready to destroy and deploy our upcoming opponent’s this weekend in our CCAA/GNAC tournament we are putting on here at Sonoma State. So come support and watch us in action this 12-10-10 (Friday) and 12-11-10 (Saturday) at 7pm!! And hear me when I say, we will be ready!!