Stickin' With Sam

I got home for Christmas break on Friday and coming home now is much different from my other two trips home. I’ve definitely become more comfortable with school and my friends there and I’ve moved to liking being at school more than coming home.

The first break I came home I was excited to see everyone, the second time I was just not that comofrtable with school, and now that I have made close friends, I’m definitely having more fun. I really like the freedom and I spend more time with the people at school so I have become closer with them than the people at home, even more than my friends from high school. I feel like I have known them longer than my friends here.

I have definitely weeded out my friends here from the ones I keep in touch with and the ones I probably won’t keep in touch with anymore. I’ll see a lot of my former Darien teammates Friday for the alumni lacrosse game but I definitely won’t be keeping in touch with a lot of them.

We have a workout plan so even though I am home I will still be conditioning to be in shape for lacrosse when I return to school. I will have to be in tip-top shape. I hope to be working out every day. I’m planning on hanging out with my friends and hopefully getting some snowborading in. My family is going away on vacation to the Captiva Islands for a week after Christmas, and that is with my extended family so I will get to spend time with everybody.

School so far has been awesome. I couldn’t be happier with where I am. I love the lacrosse, how much more intense it is and how dedicated you become to it and how close you become with your teammates, who looking ahead I can see being my best friends for life.

The academic part has been an adjustment with having the independence and so much extra time and learning to manage it, but I think I will handle it better the second semester than I did the first, though I am expecting my grades for the first semester will be good.

I’m just really excited for the season to start on February 14 even though our first four games are the toughest of the year. We play Maryland, Duke, North Carolina and Virginia. I think I had a strong fall season and hopefully I will have a starting position, but I don’t know yet.

For now I am just thinking about relaxing for a few weeks and having fun while I’m home.

I’ll talk to you all soon.

Just an update: Sam has been busy finishing finals, thus the reason for no recent update. She is due back home for her holiday break tomorrow and we will have a new post up soon. — Dave Ruden

(With Sam home for Thanksgiving break, we decided to do a video shoot today for her latest entry. We hope you enjoy it. — Dave Ruden)

This past weekend I went down to the University of Virginia to watch it play Duke in volleyball and see my friend and former volleyball and lacrosse teammate at Darien, Phoebe Maglathlin, play for Duke. It was really weird sitting on the sidelines watching her team play.

I felt I should be out there. It made me miss volleyball a lot.

It got me thinking about how I’d be in the semifinals in states at Darien now if I were back home. It was such a big part of my life.

Being part of the Darien volleyball program always made me feel special. It has a very strong tradition. As a freshman I had never played volleyball before, was so intimidated by the older girls and had no idea what I was getting myself into. My older sister Alex was on the team, loved it and told me I should try it.

I loved it right from the beginning. It was different, a lot of fun, really fast-paced and really confusing at first. It was kind of hard to learn it, but I pick things up pretty quickly and got the hang of it.

Lauren Phillips, another freshman, and I got to play with the seniors that first week. They all knew what they were doing and I was a little freshman not knowing what to do.

It probably took me about a week or so to get the hang of it because practices are so long. You learn a lot in four hours.

By my sophomore year I became a starter and played on teams that lost just one match my entire career, and won four league and state titles.

It seemed because of our success everyone outside of Darien rooted against us. Every day at practice Coach LaRusso would say we have a huge target on our backs, everyone is out to shut us down and we can’t let them do that.

There was always a sense of pride being part of the program. The team was known for being so good. It made me feel awesome that I was a part of it and I got to play for Darien. if I had gone to a different school my experience would have been totally different. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much because I never worked as hard for anything as I did in volleyball.

Every day Coach would teach me something new, something I look back on and say ‘Now I know why she did that.’ Darien volleyball will always be a part of me.

Watching Phoebe play made me realize how much I missed it. Even when I came home from fall break and practiced with the team a few days, I wanted to be back there and a part of it. No matter how hard it was.

People wondered why you would put yourself through all the hours and long practices, but I did it for the love of the game and our team was so tightly knit. We always trusted each other and knew we were going to be there. It was definitely a learning experience how to work with people as one. That’s a key in every sport.

I talk to my sister Charlett, who is on the team, all the time and she keeps me updated on how they are doing.

I wish the team all the best of luck in states this week.

This is Homecoming weekend at Richmond and after having a great Halloween weekend we get to kick off another one, with a big football game against Villanova. There is a big bond fire tonight that the football coach, Mike London, organized.

I’m planning on spending the weekend with my teammates and tomorrow is the big day, with the game and the tailgating. There will be a lot of people here, including a lot of alumni.

Halloween was a lot of fun. It’s definitely much different than home, where a lot of kids don’t want to dress up, but everyone dressed up here. I ended up wearing three different costumes on three different nights. It was my first Halloween to actually be with friends and stay out because I was always on curfew with the Darien volleyball team.

I really enjoyed the Halloween gift package my mother sent me. There were Oreos, decorative lights and candy. I used to take a lot of the candy that my parents would give to trick-or-treaters.

Fall ball is officially over and right now we are still practicing and conditioning to stay in the shape we are in. We still have a long time until our season begins. At Darien I always had volleyball in the fall to keep me busy and it’s very weird right now. I wish I had a sport to keep me busy.

School work is definitely getting harder as the semester is coming to an end. I really have to focus on getting good grades. I think I’m doing pretty well right now, somewhere in the B range, but I want to at least maintain that and hopefully get them even higher.

I’ll talk to you all next week!

We went to Duke last weekend for our final fall-ball tournament. We were pretty excited, except for having to get up at 5 a.m. I was really excited to see my mom, who flew down for the day to watch me play.

We played five teams. We opened with Florida and got killed by them, then lost to Louisville. We did not play well. Then we played really well against Virginia Tech and Davidson, then ended with Duke. We played well but they controlled the draw, which made it hard for us to go on the attack.

I scored six goals in the games and I was much happier with the way I played in this tournament than the previous one, plus the weather was much better. I was definitely more confident and more comfortable for this tournament. I got a lot more playing time as well, which made me feel good.

I came away feeling much better about my situation.

One of the highlights was seeing my friend Phoebe Maglathlin, who was my teammate on the Darien volleyball and lacrosse teams and is now playing volleyball at Duke. She came and watched a few of the games and it was fun to catch up with her. She is getting playing time at Duke, which I was happy to hear. It was great to see her.

Even though there are no more fall-ball games we are still going through conditioning and lifting.

We’re getting really excited for Halloween this weekend and having fun. There are a lot of parties and on Saturday night there is a house off campus where a group of graduated football players are having a haunted house.

A couple of the freshmen on the lacrosse team and I are dressing up as baseball players. We have to dress up all three nights so we need two more costumes. We are trying to come up with something funny and creative.

Because of volleyball we never really got to do anything in Darien on Halloween so I am really looking forward to this.

Right now I am starting to count down the days to Thanksgiving. Since we aren’t as busy with practice now everything is going a little slower. Seeing my mother last weekend was a little bit of a tease so I am looking forward to getting home and spending more time with my family and friends.

I will talk to you all next week!

I had a really nice fall break being back with my family and friends last weekend. I wish it could have been longer. I feel I didn’t get to do all I wanted to do, but I’m also really glad to be back here at school.

It was weird coming back for a Darien football game and seeing other people from my grade. It felt like I should have been a senior still. I got to go to two of the volleyball practices and that was a lot of fun. I haven’t played in a year so I was a little rusty, but if was fun to work out with them. I beat my sister Charlett, who is a sophomore on the team, in a 64, which is a suicide sprint forward and then backpedaling. You have to do it under 64 seconds. I didn’t do all the conditioning drills, however.

I went out for Japanese food with my family on Saturday night and went pumpkin picking Monday afternoon. Charlett took over my room and it was a little weird seeing her stuff in there instead of mine. I missed my bed.

Even though I was home for four days, I wish I had a little more time to spend with everybody.

When I got back Tuesday I had dinner with most of the girls on the lacrosse team and we traded stories about our breaks. I can see a slight move toward feeling like Richmond is my home, but I am such a homebody and so close with my family that it is going to take more time until I completely feel that way.

This weekend we are going to Navy for some scrimmages against Bucknell, Oregon and Navy. I’m really excited. Tomorrow I think Coach is going to break things down in terms of who is going to start, and that is going to be really interesting. It’s a little nervewracking because I’m really hoping I get to start or at least get some playing time.

I have a buddy from high school who goes to Navy so if I can see him that will be fun. And the chance to travel with the team to play other schools should be cool. All I’m used to is bus rides with Darien.

Hopefully I’ll have some good stories to tell next week about this weekend and my first games as a college player.

I am coming home for fall break tomorrow and I am so excited to see my family and friends, who I haven’t seen for about two months now. I’m counting down the hours, though I still have to get through an early-morning workout tomorrow with the freshmen football players at 6 a.m. Hopefully I won’t miss my flight from being tired.

I was so excited seeing my parents last weekend when they came and visited. It was nice to spend time with them. I feel like we have gotten closer even though we are farther away. I now understand that saying how absence makes the heart grow fonder.

I went out to dinner with my parents and got to do a little shopping with my mother, which I was really looking forward to, and I got to show them my new lifestyle at college. We had our intrasquad game, which was really fun, and my team won by a lot. I scored two goals and we got to meet the alumni.

We haven’t really done a full game situation in a long time and it was really nice to play without stopping a lot. The college game is so much faster, the refs are more lenient and it’s nice to see the ball flying up the field. There’s a lot more contact and I’m a pretty aggressive person, so it’s nice to play my style without getting into trouble for it.

After the game we had a tailgate and got to meet all the parents that came down. It was really nice and I really felt like part of the team meeting every one and having a good time.

I have really missed my siblings — I have three sisters and one brother — a lot even though they could be obnoxious when I was living at home. I’m excited to see how much they have grown up. Charlett is a sophomore in high school, which is scary to say, and it is even scarier because Mckenna will be in high school next year.

I’m planning on going to a Darien volleyball practice — I played on the team for four years — and I’m looking forward to seeing the team and how they play compared to when I was playing on the team.

Obviously I will be getting my coffee and breakfast sandwich again from The Doughnut Inn. I’m excited to see my friends Aaron, Emily and Shannon and my group of friends from Norwalk. We are just going to hang out.

School is going well. I just had one midterm and wrote two essays for tomorrow so I’m looking forward to a little break.

I’m sure I will have a lot of stories to tell you next week and I think it will be easier to come back to school now that I’ve been here.