This week we traveled to a city up north with lots of activities, site seeing, and good eats. Can you guess where our next opponent was located? None other than Chicago, The Wind City. On Thursday January 20th we, the team and coaching staff headed out for our 5-hour bus trip to Chicago. The bus is a place where us as players have time to get our homework done, take our well needed naps, and bond with each other.
Later that Thursday night we arrived at the hotel which was our first destination. After getting to the hotel, we quickly headed back onto the bus to get dinner at a hole in the wall restaurant called Pizzeria Uno, and we had the famous Chicago style pizza! After pizza us players thought that we were heading back to the hotel, but little did we know that we were going sightseeing after dinner. The bus stopped at a Chicago staple, The Bean. For me I was super excited to see this monumental piece of art because I had never seen it before. The Bean was a great surprise, and we got our cameras out and took selfies, videos, and pictures of the site.
Next stop was our pregame meal with the whole team and coaches to fuel up at a restaurant called Exchequer. After this it was time to prep for game time. We headed back to the hotel to get taped, get our hair done, and look over the game plan. Next up we headed to Loyola for the game. I was particularly excited for this game because my best friend plays for Loyola, #10 Maya Chandler. This is common for players to know other players on other teams because of our old AAU teams, high school teams, and all-star team & games before college. Loyola was not just a special game for me, but for one of my teammates #14 Abby Fiet. This game was where she scored her 1,000-career point. This is a huge milestone and goal for all players, but what is very impressive is that she is only a junior.
Saturday was a recovery and chill day for our team after a long few days. We wake up early for breakfast and then do some homework for a few hours because we have a prep day for game day Sunday. After our free time to get homework done, lunch arrived and then we headed to practice at Valparaiso University. Later at night we headed to dinner at Industrial Revolution Eatery. Dinner was a success, one of my assistant coaches and I are vegetarian, so we were thrilled to see a black bean burger on the menu that night! After dinner me and a couple of teammates had to hit up the hotel hot tub, and then it was time to get ready for bed and rest for our afternoon game.
Time to wake up again… It is game day! We started our morning off early with team review and breakfast. After this was the final time to pack up our things and get on the bus to head to the game. A short drive later we arrived at Valparaiso University to play our game.
When the game was over, we got on the bus and headed back home to Evansville. At the end of the day all the hard work and hours travelling, away trips with my teammates are going to be forever a great memory. I hope that I have given you an insightful read into what the life of a college student athlete and more specifically what a college women’s basketball life is like.
