Ice in My Veins (3 page)

We didn’t talk much for the rest of the meal. I didn’t want to argue with him. This wouldn’t be any different to me. I was used to not having my friends or family around for my games and practices. It was probably for the best. Having my father in the stands might make me nervous.

Challenges

I showed up at the rink about fifteen minutes early. I was suppose to talk to Coach before the training camp started. I walked down the stairs to his office and knocked on the door. “Come in,” he called through the closed door.

When he saw me he smiled warmly. “Oh Christine. I am glad you came early. I wanted to talk to you about the changing arrangements. For today, and the rest of camp, I thought it would be best to have you suit up in the visitor’s locker room. You will have full privacy in there.”

He began shifting through papers on his desk and then continued. “I don’t know how this is going to go over with all the guys, it’s going to be a hard adjustment for them. They are teenage boys with raging hormones. I know that you are only sixteen, and if you have any concerns, or feel uncomfortable in any way come to me immediately. If you do happen to make the team, then we can all discuss this as a team. For now, for camp anyway - the boys will all be on their best behavior. I promise you this or they will be off the team. We try and teach our players respect and if they don’t learn to respect others, then that is the consequence they face.” He assured me, as he walked out from behind his desk.

“Thanks Coach, I will be fine.” I tried to reassure him with a smile; he wasn’t buying it.

“Don’t be nervous, you will be fine. Just remember that all those guys are in the same boat and as nervous as you out there,” he admitted.

“I also want you to meet Mr. Allan Richmond from the CHL.” He motioned towards the man leaning against the wall. I hadn’t noticed him before this moment. Mr. Richmond reached out to shake my hand.

“Nice to meet you Mr. Richmond.” I greeted.

He smiled as he shook my hand. His smile was warm and inviting. It sent an instant calm through me. However, I still suspected he was there with an agenda.

“Christine, I am here today, and will be throughout camp. Before a player is allowed to play in the CHL, they need approval from the League. This is standard practice. Nothing to worry about. I am hear to observe. As you probably realize it’s not common to have a girl playing in the CHL. We want to make sure that this situation will be handled appropriately. You won’t even notice me around.” He promised.

I was pretty sure I would notice him lurking around the rink. Spying on me - making sure I could handle the situation, and that the guys could.

I looked towards the coach. “You don’t need to hear all the politics behind this. I just wanted to introduce you both.” He assured me. “Now go ahead and suit up.”

“Thanks. Do I just come out to the ice when I’m suited up?” I inquired.

“Yes, see you out there in ten minutes,” he exclaimed as he walked away.

I walked into the visitor’s locker room and looked around. It was big, had showers, exercise bikes, T.V., a stereo; and a huge chalk board. If the visitors change room was this nice, I bet the home locker room was awesome.

I quickly suited up and went out to the ice. I wasn’t the first one out there. He was there also - the gorgeous guy, Alex, from yesterday.

He skated over to me “Hey there Chrissy, How ya doing?” He smiled, then he nudged my shoulder as if we were the best of friends.

It annoyed me. I wanted to smack the smile right off his face. He was acting like he hadn’t irritated the hell out of me yesterday with his comments. My blood was still boiling over from the conversation. He infuriated me.

“Good, thanks Alex.” I said icily. I made sure to use his name, so he knew I remembered it. I skated away from him still enraged at him and started to warm up on the ice.

He was watching me. I noticed right away out of the corner of my eye. How frustrating. What did he find so fascinating about me? What a jerk. I wanted to hate him, yet something was overriding that hatred.

My first impression from ice level was WOW! It was so different looking up into the stands from the ice. The rink was huge. I got a chill. I started to feel more nervous then I ever had before. I knew everything was on the line for me now. I had to make the most of this opportunity.

While I was down on the ice doing leg stretches one of the guys skated over to me. I bit my lip hesitantly. I was unsure if he was coming over to chirp me or not. The last thing I wanted at this moment was to get into it with another player. I had to keep my temper in check. That was something I was just learning to do. In the past, I had carried around a chip on my shoulder towards people who reacted badly to girls who play guys’ sports. I looked up at him guarded.

“Chrissy?” He asked politely and took his glove off. He put his hand out for me to shake. “I am Moose, well, Kyle Schneider, the team captain.”

I shook his hand and said, “nice to meet you”. He was pretty good looking as well. What was with these Canadian boys? They were hot. He was a big guy. Maybe about 6’3. He dropped down to the ice and started stretching beside me. He didn’t seem so bad. My guard went down immediately. I started to notice his warm chocolate eyes, the way his hair swooped down to one side, covering his left eye slightly. What was getting into me? Suddenly all I could think about was boys and how appealing they had become. I shook it off.

“So, are you nervous at all?” He asked as he stretched. “I heard that you have never played with guys before.” He stated.

Alex must have said something to him about our conversation. Big mouth! I glared over in Alex’s direction, he was still watching me.

“I am nervous as to what I should expect from camp I guess. Not to worried about the guys, I do have brothers.” I laughed trying to mask my anger.

He chuckled. “You sound like my sister, she plays hockey as well, for a girls team; she’s only twelve.”

My guard shot back up again. At first I was about to snap at him for referring me to his twelve year old sister, but then I realized that he just meant she was stubborn. I was without question stubborn.

He got up from stretching, and turned to me. “Well have a good camp, if you have any questions or concerns come see me alright.” He smiled sincerely, then skated away.

I got up from stretching myself out and skated to the center of the ice, where Coach had called us all around.

“I am only going to say this once.” Coach said with authority. “This year we have a girl at camp with us, as most of you have probably noticed.” He continued. “Her name is Christine, she goes by Chrissy. I expect you to treat her with the same respect you treat the other guys.” He seemed to make eye contact with two players in particular. They just nodded at him. “That being said, let’s start.”

I heard murmurs from the other players. There were a few muffled comments about how it wasn’t cool for a girl to be there with them - the elite. There were also a few dirty comments about me being hot and bang-able. Guys, they always had sex on their minds.

I heard one guy mumble, “kind of hard to wheel in a chick, if you have a girl like that cock blocking you. This is going to suck.”

The guy he spoke to commented back. ”She’s hot, I wouldn’t mind hitting that.” He snickered.

I sluffed the comments off. I ignored the stares. I couldn’t let things like that get to me. I was here for one thing only – HOCKEY! That’s all that was important.

Coach started the practice. “I want Welsh and Chrissy to swing low from opposite sides of the ice, receive a pass from Moose in corner. Welsh and Chrissy attack opposite end – Moose chases, but stops at blue-line. I will pass to Moose for the point shot. Welsh and Chrissy you guys curl up-ice and receive the pass from me to create a 2 vs 1.” He continued to explain in detail what he wanted each of us to do. He skated us hard for the next three hours. Mostly running drills. Testing us to see what we had to offer, and how much punishment we could take. Then he called us in to the center of the ice.

“Alright, today was good. You guys worked hard out there.” He continued. “Tomorrow will be different. I want all of you here bright and early; 9:00 a.m. for equipment fitting and medicals, and then outside for fitness testing. Should be fun!” He chuckled. “Now all of you get out of here and get a good night sleep tonight.” He walked off the ice writing something down on his clipboard.

Moose skated over to me and patted my back. “Wow, you impressed me out there Chrissy,” he complimented. “I wasn’t sure what to expect from you, but you certainly brought it.” His comments seemed truly sincere.

“Thanks Moose, I can’t believe how hard it was for day one.” I admitted. I was feeling the pain. I knew that was the point of the coach working us so hard.

“Don’t worry I think you’ll definitely make it past the first cut. Providing everything goes good for you tomorrow.” He smirked like he knew a secret. Odd!

“What is tomorrow? Medicals?” I questioned. “What exactly do they make us do?”

“Oh, it’s not a big deal, they weigh us all in, run a few tests, it’s really nothing. They just want to see what kind of shape we’re all in. Don’t worry about it,” he assured. “After you change, Coach wants to see you in his office.” He started to skate away “take ‘r easy,” he called from over his shoulder.

Great, wonder what the coach wants. Maybe he was going to cut me right away. Maybe that was the secret Moose was hiding from me? He was the captain, maybe he knew something I didn’t? I quickly showered and changed into my street clothes.

I walked to the coach’s office and noticed that in the room with him, were the rest of the assistant coaches and staff members. I suppose they were getting ready for tomorrow. There were a few lists of names on the dry board on the wall. The door was open. He motioned for me to come in. I did.

“Hey Coach, Moose said you wanted to see me?” I asked worried.

“Yes Christine, I know you are probably wondering about tomorrow. I thought I would just briefly explain a few things to you. Just so you know what to expect.” He said thoughtfully.

He looked back down at his desk, shuffled through some papers and handed them to one of the assistant coaches.

He started. “Tomorrow will be a long day, I just thought I would explain some of the testing that we will be doing. First we will do a psychological evaluation, this is basic. The test consists of a two-part written test of approximately one hour’s length. The first part is a long series of questions about your personality, including such things as mental toughness and coach-ability. It includes around 200 questions, most are yes or no answers.”

Hmm, that seemed easy enough I thought. I was good with tests. I was also an honest person with good leadership skills. It didn’t have me concerned.

He continued on. “The second part of the evaluation is a mental efficiency test. This measures spatial awareness, decision speed, decision accuracy, concentration, and rates of mental fatigue. A shortened form of the second part is repeated immediately after the fitness testing component. This is to determine how much the player’s reactions decline under stress and fatigue.”

I listened to him wondering if this test might turn out to be a three week test.

He kept explaining. “The medical part is just the filling out of a medical questionnaire, questions and examination by the team doctors, photographs of all the players, an eye test. I believe there is also two hand/eye coordination tests. Pretty simple things.”

This was the most I had ever heard him speak to me. I felt like I was sitting through a lecture. Thank God he spoke with expression, and not all monotone like some teachers I had in the past.

He paused briefly to take a sip of his coffee then started explaining the rest of the testing to me. “The fitness testing is more grueling. It consists of hand grip strength, wingspan which determines arm span or reach, push-ups and sit-ups; bench press: maximum number of reps at 150 pounds. Also standing long jump, vertical jump, seated medicine ball throw. Then balance, that is balancing on a balance board, and measuring how many times you touched the floor in 60 seconds. We test for agility also. It’s a few tests. One similar to the hexagon test. For that test, there is an ‘X’ at the center of a circle. You have to jump from the ‘X’ to the top of the circle, then back to the ‘X’, then to the right side, then back to the ‘X’ and so on. There are sensors all around the circle to measure speed. The Wingate test is a 30 second bike test for anaerobic power (measures explosive speed and fatigue). The aerobic bike VO2max test will test endurance, it measures VO2, heart rate, and duration of ability to pedal with differing resistance.”

I was wondering if he was ever going to come up for air. His explanation was as long as someone reciting the encyclopedia.

“Not so bad eh Chrissy, just like gym class,” he laughed. “Go to the hotel and get some shut eye. You will want to be well rested for tomorrow. You did good out there today.” He said as he showed me to the door.

“Thanks Coach.” I said, as I left his office.

Wow, if he thought that was brief I wonder what our team meetings were going to be like? I laughed to myself. Then I noticed out of the corner of my eye - he was standing by the doors watching me. Alex! The most annoying, stuck up, good looking, magnetizing, handsome, hot, charming, guy I have ever encountered. I wanted to hate him.

“Hey Christine, you did great out there, skated circles around more than half the guys.” He smirked. “Impressed.”

I had to admit “It was definitely tough out there, not what I expected at all.”

I pushed my hockey bag higher up on my shoulder. “I think by the time I walk to my hotel I might just collapse.”