This weekend, I went to Pinehurst, NC to the American Polocrosse Association National Championships. I was on a team with 5 people (2 sections of 3 people) from Minnesota that I'd never met before. This never turns out well for me.
I pull into the Pinehurst Harness Track (site of Nationals) and see my barn with like 5 trailers there - all from Minnesota. I started thinking "Ok, these guys are fairly serious if they sent this many teams. This might not be too bad."
The first day of the tournament, we played against a team with a couple B/A grade players on it. This kinda scared me a bit cause we were playing C grade (nearly everyone downgrades for Nationals to make it more competitive). One of the guys has a wife who is the Secretary for the APA and he is now a professional polo player. The other one just got back from Iraq as a Colonel, has a wife on the Nationals Tournament Committee, and a son on the U16 team. Also a hardcore player. We beat this team 4-3. I played DECENT but mostly got to see how my teammates were. Our number 3's are probably the best I've ever played with (aside from playing A grade). The other number 1 (my position) is a good rider, but his ball-handling skills weren't that great. Thats ok with me as long as he can score lol. The number 2 that played on my section (I was told) was the highest rated player in our division, and got the "Most Aggressive Player" award. That made me happy.
The second game we won 10-5.
The second day of the tournament, my horse was a little stiff during the first game (which we won 4-3). After I came off the field and got all the tack off, Mom realized he was limping a bit on his right-hind leg, and that it was swollen. We iced it for 30 minutes right after that game and for another 20 before the second game before it went down.
The last game of the tournament, my team was battling for first. This game decided the winner of the division. After the first chukka (8-minute time period; 2 per game) I had only scored one goal and my other number 1 scored one. At this point we were losing 3-2 because my horse was still a bit sore and couldn't quite push past their number 3. We iced his ass for another 5 minutes.
The last game was be far the best I have ever done. I scored 2 goals right at the beginning and psyched out the number 3. My teammates were incredible at holding off the opposing players and the other team's 3 was getting so pissed he started crying, swinging his racket around as fast as he could (hitting his horse in the process), and swearing. I scored a total of 5 goals that game.
After I played my chukka, I went over to Mom's truck to take all the tack off Leo (my horse) cause he was sweating. After I got ALL the tack off of him (you should see the list of required tack for polocrosse...its huge), I asked Mom what the score was. She said it was 8-8 and I could tell she was getting nervous. A few seconds later she came running over to the truck flailing her arms around screaming "MICHAEL GET THE TACK BACK ON YOUR HORSE! WE MIGHT HAVE SUDDEN DEATH AND YOUR SECTION PLAYS!!!"
I have never seen anyone tack up a horse so fast. It was a freakin assembly line! Me, Mom, Dad, and Mom's friend Tom were all rolling polo-wraps (leg protection...basically leg bandages) and throwing all the tack back on my horse. This took all of about 2 and a half minutes (normally takes anywhere from 10-30 minutes depending on how much time I waste). As I'm walking my horse toward the field, my number 1 is in the goal-scoring area trying to out-maneuver the opposing 3. He barely had an opening and took some crazy-ass shot that I probably would have taken (my teammates' favorite hobby this weekend was yelling at me for my crazy shots...the shut up after they went in though lol) and it fell out of his racket and rolled along the ground and through the goal posts. Within the next 30 seconds, the timer went off and everyone started screaming that we won.
Now, this was my first experience in polocrosse Nationals and it was a blast. Winning made it even better :D. I got a belt-buckle and a shirt (which I will post pics of, along with shots of the rest of the tourny).
Oh and I played so rough that I split my racket. I need to replace the head of it now (again, pics of it).
YAY FOR COOP!!!
Comments »
cooper @ 2007-09-04 17:19:16
Ok, I know its boring to some of you BUT ITS FREAKIN AWESOME!
Post a comment to keep me happy at least?
Streetbum @ 2007-09-04 18:12:46
Boobs.
Nikki @ 2007-09-04 18:27:42
Congrats Cooper!! That's quite an accomplishment. Can't wait to see the pics.
cooper @ 2007-09-06 07:01:30
Woohoo! Comments!
I'm working on like 3 projects for my AP class right now so I can't plug the pics into the computer yet. I might be able to this weekend, but I've got another paper due Tuesday >_<
