Hello Week 3! Hello Cincinnati and hello injuries. The weekend of triage. I hate to classify the event this way as it paints it in a negative light, and that is exactly NOT what I am intending to do. But, it is the 800-pound Gorilla and to not recognize it would not give it its due. It was a tough week for all the teams, and the injury bug seemed to hit us particularly hard this week.
Being true to my profession as a teacher, I will show you a couple of things: What we were dealing with rolling into the weekend and then how we dealt with it and I will use the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List terminology to classify us the best I can.
Extinct
- Dayne - Bad knee, glute, shoulder and pinky. Well, I can probably only confirm the knee, but still. If Dayne can’t go, you know it is bad.
- Lily Kordic-Mueller - Bad knee. No surgery required, thank goodness, but no play in Cincy, and rest and rehab to get ready for Kansas City.
Endangered
- David Smith - Lingering hamstring strain. David just mentally rules out the injury by hating on it so much that the injury is afraid to slow him down.
- Chrishawn Spackman - Grade 2 quad strain. In typical Chrishawn fashion, she employed what I would refer to as the “suck it up, buttercup” technique and just played through pain.
- Johan Svensson - Bad knee. The stoic Swede would never let you know it, but the E-stem therapy, double ice packs and knee brace might have hinted that the injury was more severe than Johan was letting on.
- Piet Aldrich - Bad knee. Started in Columbus, came back in Cincy. Can anyone say stem-cell injection?
- Keith Jain - Stupidity. I decided that the best way to prep for Cincy was to play 12 days in a row, and the 12th day bit me in the calf.
Threatened
- Stacy Zelenski - the full leg compression sock was either a bold fashion choice or there really was something lingering there.
- Kim Jagd - I am going to add her here only because playing with her, I know she is not 100% yet, but she will never let that stop her.
Least Concern
- John Riedy - never hurt and plays more than anyone I know….
- Joe Frasca - You can’t stop El Gato
- Maggie Murch - What a di…..Uh, I mean starred in her own one-person rendition of Liam Neeson’s TAKEN? What was that video anyway???
- Julene James - Not even a bad-tasting gyro can slow her down wielding her new paddle.
- Brenda Tilford - Just fierce and really finding her stride.
- Maureen Doyle - Played HUGE in big situations.
That is what we were facing, and this is how we dealt with it. I refer to it (as I think many of you did too) as the “earn your pay” weekend.
Before we even arrived, leadership went out to the sub list to fill Lily's spot on the roster. We picked up Maureen Doyle, who filled in admirably and helped secure some wins for the team. A HUGE thank you to Maureen for stepping up in our time of need! You helped hold us together and dominated, in particular, in our win against OKC. That was fun to watch. And it was a pleasure getting to know you. Welcome to the fam.
The next to fall was Dayne. When Dayne went down, early Saturday morning, our Team Manager, Ryan Wills had to make changes on the fly and come up with not only a new plan A, but a B, C, D, and probably an E for each team battle in case anyone else moved to the extinct list. Lots of shifting and decisions to be made, but our leadership put their heads together and patched us up.
Jill Martin, the unsung hero, now became the sung hero. All weekend long was filled with questions and comments like, “When do you need me to stretch you out? How are you feeling? Are you still okay? I can be here whatever time you need me. Be a corpse. Stop making that face! Don’t be a ‘P’!” I can only speak for myself, but I credit Jill for keeping me on the court and not having a setback, or worse.
Dayne, unable to play, made sure his presence was felt basically in every match with insights, strategies, and cracking our opponent’s code to give us the best chance of pulling off victory. It’s pretty sweet having that kind of knowledge to call upon.
Those things combined allowed us to go out there and compete. And as players, we found ourselves in new and unfamiliar partnerships and playing lines that were not our usual. That adds another factor into the mix as we had to figure out each other’s tendencies on the court. I felt like the flexibility on everyone’s part to happily embrace the chaos and support one another is just another testament to the Scorpions as a team.
On a personal level, I cannot thank my partners enough who had to deal with me on the court and did so with kindness and support.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our support crew. Andy, the steady presence, always has tons of insights and understands team dynamics better than anyone. It is hard to discount the words of a hall-of-famer. Don is there to make sure things are set up, we have rides, and to make sure we have everything we need. Janis is always there offering insight, information, and good conversation. Ruth Ann supports us for 12 hours a day, encouraging us though our losses and celebrating our victories. Stacy & Chrishawn always have a close friend or family member who by the end of the event are part of the “squad”.
Look, we all suffer from O.L.D. syndrome. And these things are going to happen throughout the course of the season. We ended the weekend 1-3, but the silver lining is we know a lot more about each other and about the resilience of our team, which I think sets us up well as we roll towards October and the Championships.
At the end of the day, I could think of no better place I would have rather have been and I believe we are growing stronger as a team mentally and emotionally, not just on the court. I loved every bit of it and am thankful to be part of a very special group of people that I genuinely call dear friends.
I can’t wait for Kansas City!