Bucknell University Athletics
Pan American Postcard: Bucknell Field Hockey's Resh Checks in from Mexico
9/11/2012 8:00:00 AM | Field Hockey
Sept. 11, 2012
LEWISBURG, Pa. – While Bucknell field hockey prepares for its upcoming bouts with Towson and Ohio State, junior midfielder Vickie Resh is in Guadalajara, Mexico playing with Team USA at the Pan American Junior Championship. Resh will be checking in periodically throughout her international experience. Below is her first blog entry that comes on the heels of a 9-0 win over Venezuela in the first game of pool play, which runs through Sept. 17. Team USA next faces Paraguay today at 8:30 p.m. Eastern.
It's our third day here in Guadalajara, Mexico and the second day of the tournament. Yesterday was the first time I got to put on the USA uniform and play in an international tournament. It was an awesome experience! Before we left for the field, my coach Nick Conway, and team manager (and 2008 Beijing Olympian) Carrie Lingo, presented me and two other girls who have never played for the USA with our jerseys and some silly Mexican souvenirs.
Our first game was against Venezuela and we came up with a big 9-0 win! Even though we won by a landslide, there are some definite kinks we have to work out. We hope to work some of them out tonight when we play Paraguay!
My everyday schedule is fairly busy. We start every day with a morning “wake up” walk and stretch and then head to breakfast. After breakfast we have a couple hours designated to homework and studying. Then it's lunch and a heart rate spike where we jog to a park nearby and do some more running and stretching. The altitude here makes it a little difficult for all of us to run for long but in a day or two we should all by acclimated and have no problems! As we're running through the streets, we tend to get lots of stares from the locals. I guess it's not every day they see a group of American girls running down their busy sidewalks! Sometime in the afternoon we will have a meeting to go over our objectives for that day's game. And not long after that … it's time to get ready for the game!
We're staying in a hotel with most of the other teams and my floor actually consists mostly of the USA U21 Men's team. I already found out that one of them lives not far from my hometown, which is neat! The hotel itself is pretty nice, but I wish I could say the same for the food. Most of us are surviving on PB&J sandwiches and granola bars. Tomorrow night we're getting pizza and I can't tell you how excited I am! We're also very careful with the water here. We only drink bottled and they even told us to brush our teeth with bottled water. It's actually much more difficult than I anticipated!
Looking forward to keeping you updated!
-Vickie
