The One Who Never Quits (from "My Short Stories (Book One)") - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

My life, as I know it, has become unlike anyone else’s (that I am close to), but it’s been very happy, most of the time, in my opinion.  I am very determined to work towards my most cherished goals in life.  And, I’m very lucky in that respect. I work in a sporting environment, in a sport that I just love – being a female hockey player on the Canadian Women’s Hockey Team!  It’s very exciting being on the road, going to play in different cities and countries of the world.  This is my story of how it all happened.

It all started for me when I was a teenager, playing on my high school hockey team as a forward.  I just loved rushing down the ice, “knocking down” my opponents (in a manner of speaking), trying to make it look like “legal” body-checking.  I’d only been on the team for about 3 years of my high school career when my teacher / coach, Laura, called me into her office one day after a practice.  She asked me just how committed I was to women’s hockey and the game of hockey, in general – was I planning to make a long term career out of it?  I said “Sure!” (Who, in their right mind, would say “No” to her hockey coach??), but nobody was making any offers to me yet.  I still wasn’t quite sure what Laura meant by this question.  After all, I was only 17 years old – plenty of time to be thinking about a career in any field, I thought.

But, Laura was about to give me the shock of my life.  It seemed that a female hockey scout from the Canadian Women’s team had attended a few of our games, looking for players who “stood out” and initiated plays on the ice that would clearly help the team toward a victory.  The kind of player she was looking for had to be very fast, agile and strong, and able to anticipate (as well as generate) upcoming plays.  The player that the scout had identified with these characteristics was me.  “So, what does that mean?” I asked Laura. 

“It means that you’ll have to go to York University for an official tryout and, if you make the Canadian Women’s Hockey Team, you’ll be going to Vancouver, B.C. to play with the team next week, for real!”  Laura explained.

She went on to elaborate, telling me that my life, as I knew it, would change completely if I made it to the national team.  But, first, I needed to obtain my parents’ permission to participate, plus get some financing from them for the trip to Vancouver.  If they allowed me to go and financing was possible, I would leave high school and my team here to embark on a new and exciting adventure!

Fortunately, my parents were willing to let me try out for the Canadian Women’s team and see if I had what it takes to compete at an international level.  After all, they reasoned, if it didn’t work out, I would have had at least a chance at greatness.  None of us actually thought that it would amount to anything substantial, but was definitely worth trying.  So, I decided to go to York University to see what would happen during my tryout there. 

At the tryout, I carefully looked over the other members of the Canadian Women’s team.  They were all bigger and seemed much stronger than I had thought they would be.  I was afraid, suddenly, that I’d land on my ass and totally embarrass myself!  Scary stuff!  But, this was my big chance.  When I got onto the ice at York, fully dressed in my hockey uniform for my tryout, it felt like I was about to play my very first game of hockey!  How was I ever going to “stand out” in this group of superior women players?

The first thing we had to do was to “power skate” – a term that refers to skating forwards, backwards and changing direction, all very quickly, while on the move.  The first part of this was very good and I handled it well. 

The second part involved changing levels with your body (relative to the ice surface) – from being on your feet, to falling onto your knees, to falling face down on your chest, and finally, to getting back up onto your feet, all done as quickly as possible.  That part was okay too, except for an old nagging knee injury of mine that made it hard for me to fall on my knees (even with knee pads on) and get back up on my feet in a hurry.  I resolved to work on that skill harder, using extra protective padding under my hockey equipment to cushion my tender knee better. 

The third part of the tryout had to do with body checking, which is not legal in women’s hockey, but as a forward, you had to be ready for a body check from your opponent (usually a defenseman), plus, you had to be able to insert a part of your body between the hockey puck and your opponent’s stick, all without using a body check to accomplish this – not an easy thing to do.  One trick was to jam your opponent’s hockey stick into the boards, putting your skate between her stick and the puck by pressing her stick into the boards and freezing it there.  That move was allowed, but it was hard not to have illegal body contact with your opponent at the same time.  Then, you had to somehow scoot the puck over to a waiting team-mate (assuming that there was someone waiting) who could then grab it to score, or, pass it to someone who was in a better scoring position so that she could score.

No matter whether you played forward or defence, you always had to be ready for whatever the opposition was going to do to get possession of the puck – because once they had it, they could score.  They sometimes did illegal things to get the puck for themselves, but they had to do it without getting caught and penalized.  Depending on how well they camouflaged their illegal manoeuvrings, they might win possession of the puck and score, or get a penalty.  We, quite naturally, wanted to maximize our own chances of scoring and minimize our chances of penalties.

Another very important aspect of hockey, or, any sport for that matter, was the mental game.  That meant if we were at our best mentally, we had a much better chance of winning any game, especially if that game was a critical one, as, for example, a championship game or playoff series game.

The Canadian Women’s Hockey Team coach, a woman named Michelle, was experienced in coaching teams in other sports, as well as hockey, and had been a player at the national level for 8 – 10 years.  I had great faith in her ability to coach us, and in her experience.  I hoped that she also had faith in my ability to help the team win hockey games for Canada.

The tryout concluded with some scrimmaging among the players – we played 3-on-3 so that Michelle could see how we passed, stick-handled, skated, and attempted to score or to help our teammates to score.

My tryout at York was a resounding success!  A week later, I was on my way to Vancouver to play on the Canadian Women’s Hockey Team – which just proves one thing – you are only limited in life by the things you are not willing to try!  And, sometimes, it works out for you, as it did for me. 

My career as an amateur women’s hockey player for Canada took me to many European countries, Russia, the U.S., and distant parts of Canada.  I might never have visited places like Russia, for example, if I had not been on the team.  But, I love travelling and shopping in new cities (whenever I got some spare time for myself).  However, this did not happen very often.  There wasn’t much spare time for shopping.

Usually, I had to spend 4 to 6 hours daily on conditioning – stretching and strengthening my body, especially my weak knee, and getting physiotherapy or massage when needed.  After that, I had to rest for a while.  My diet had to be carefully controlled so that I did not consume too many calories, or overindulge when I shouldn’t.  Thus, an athlete’s life on the competition circuit is not an easy one, but for me, it was the chance of a lifetime.  Hopefully, I could continue in this vein for at least 5 years and, after that, re-consider my career options, if necessary.

I learned that international athletes actually have other options besides competition at the top level as amateurs.  If you are lucky enough to compete at one or more major competitions – for example, the Olympics or World Championships – you could have a sports-related career for life, not just as an athlete, but perhaps as a coach, or sports broadcaster, or sports journalist, or even professional athlete (as long as you’re still at the top of your game, that is).  Or, you can quit athletics and do something entirely different, but that would depend on how injury-ridden you were and that would definitely be something to consider. 

I’m sure glad I got my chance to try to succeed in the career of my choice, for however long it was to last.  Finally, I had learned that the old cliché still holds:  “Winners never quit and quitters never win”.  I would win at this game because I would never quit trying to win.

published by Authorhouse, copyright 2011, Anne Shier.  All rights reserved.