Stickin' With Sam

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.

This weekend is parents’ weekend and it has made me think how fast time is flying. It kind of seems like it was just yesterday that my parents were dropping me off here and now they are coming back. I’m excited to see them, show them around and show them what it is like to be a college student at Richmond.

I’m planning on staying with them at their hotel Friday night and I’m looking forward to taking a shower without wearing flip-flops and sleeping in a big bed. I’m not sure what we are going to do, but we will go out to dinner and me and my mom are definitely going shopping. I don’t know if my dad will be up for it.

I just really want to spend time with them because I don’t get to spend time with them like I used to. I’m used to them being at my side telling me what I should and shouldn’t do and now I am totally on my own and it is so weird. I’m independent now.

Our coach is splitting our team up tomorrow into two teams for our intrasquad game on Saturday. I’m interested to see who I am going to be playing with. A lot of seniors on the team from last year are coming back and playing so it should be a lot of fun. It is going to be exciting for my parents to see me play again. My parents are going to get a feel for my play and what it is like on the college level. The game is so much quicker.

Our assistant coach told us all of our gear is coming in and since we changed sponsors we can’t wait to get our new sticks and start playing with them.

I was sick with the flu on Tuesday and it was the wrong day to be sick because the team played basketball instead of our early-morning run, and I really like playing basketball. I used to play travel until my freshman year of high school.

I like how on our early-morning runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays our coach mixes things up for conditioning, We’ve gone from three-mile runs to 100-yard sprints, and basketball and swimming. We swam for 45 minutes straight this morning and it made me glad that I have competed for the Country Club of Darien swim team the past seven years.

Since we have fall break coming up most of my professors are talking about midterms and it’s like, wow, half of the class has gone by. Except for core they are all semester-long classes. I think academically I am doing pretty well. The writing style is different than high school but other than that I think my grades are good.

I don’t have much else to say other than it’s beautiful outside and I can’t wait to see my parents tomorrow.

See you next week!